A medievale Sake
by Iluvhorses1997
Summary: Sam is a princess Jake is her body guard.  She gets kidnapped by Slocum who is a dragon with a diferent name..  This is a bad summary.
1. Chapter 1

**Please let me know if you like it :)**

**It's rated T just to be safe  
**

Princess Samantha stared at her closet. Nothing! Okay there was actually about ten ball gowns ten tea party dresses, ten evening dresses, and twenty everyday dresses that looked like ball gowns to the comon folk.

She sighed, and picked out the most plain everyday dress. A dark blue dress with a full skirt and lace around the sleeves neck and hem. It was close fitting with a dark purple sash covered with small gems.

Then she looked in the shoe closet. All she could find were high heels.

She went downstairs to her father and prepared to eat breakfast.

"Good morning Father." "Good morning daughter." Samantha sat down. Her father, King Wren, looked at her, "Samantha, next time wear something a little more dressy." Samantha took a while to answer and then said, "Yes Daddy. Could you please call me Sam instead of Samantha?" "No. Samantha is a proper name for a princess and Sam is _not_." Samantha's shoulders slumped. "Don't slump." Sam straightened her shoulders and then began to eat some food. Pancakes and bacon and eggs. Oh it smelled so good and she was so hungry. She reached for the bacon. "Samantha, don't take more than two pieces of bacon." Samantha was upset. "But Daddy, I haven't had bacon for two weeks and the pieces are _so_ small!" "Samantha, bacon will make you fat." "But you eat so much bacon and you aren't fat!" "Samantha!"

Samantha knew that she had lost the argument.

After the meal she ran out to her horse. Wild One was one argument that she had won. Her father had said that horses were not for princesses. Although people had said that she looked so beautiful like her mother, she looked more like her father when she was angry.

When she had seen a beautiful horse that was getting beaten when she snuck out of the palace she knew she had to have it. She remembered the whole thing.

"_Okay Daddy you can kill me later, but I snuck out of the palace and saw this man. He was beating the most beautiful horse ever!" Wren's eyes hardened. Samantha narrowed her eyes and began glaring at her father. "Samantha Anne Forster, we are not going to take in a mangy animal." Mangy! Mangy! Daddy you didn't see her! She looked so satiny, and beautiful!" Wren turned his head. As far as he was concerned there were never going to be any horses anywhere near his daughter. Behind him he could almost see Samantha's jaw tighten and eyes narrow again. _

_How could he let her have a horse? He thought of the reasons they couldn't and then ticked them off to Samantha on his fingers. "Here are the reasons Samantha. One, we have no groom. Two we have no where to put it. Three it would get lonely. Four, who would take care of it?" "We could get a groom. We could build a stable. We could get more horses. And I would take care of it." She quit glaring and proceeded to give him sweet little eyes. He could never resist those from her mother. He knew having a horse wouldn't hurt her too much. He sighed and nodded at ten year old princess Samantha._

Samantha smiled just thinking about it. Then she thought of the groom and his hansom son. They had met them that day too. They had gone back to the horse and seen two strong black haired people yelling at the man beating the horse and defending the horse.

_Samantha gasped as the evil man hit the horse again. The younger of the men turned and she saw that he wasn't a man at all but a boy about twelve or thirteen. He bared his teeth and ran at the man. The man hit the ground and couldn't move from the boys iron grip. The man relaxed. For a while Samantha thought that he had given up but the boy didn't think so as he pushed down harder. The older man that was calming the horse down looked at his son and said, "Atta boy Jake." The boy grinned. Obviously the praise meant a lot to the boy. Soon the horse was calm._

_Samantha left the safety of her fathers arms and went over to the horse. "She's pretty." The man on the ground stirred and the boy punched him. The punch knocked the man out and Samantha leaned into the horse to get away from the boy. He scared her. The look on his face said he knew he'd scared her and wasn't sorry. That made her mad. She stomped on his foot. The lazy tom cat grin as she later came to call it left his face and was replaced with a shocked look. Then she heard her fathers voice, "Samantha, princesses do not stomp on people." Samantha started to protest but he fathers look said __that is she did there would be no horse for her. _

_He turned to the big strong man and said, "I am King Wren and this is Princess Samantha." Both men bowed respectfully. "My daughter snuck out of the palace and she will be punished for that, and she saw this man here beating the horse. She ran back to me and asked if we could have it. If it doesn't belong to you do you suppose we could have it?" This time the boy piped up, "It doesn't belong to us so I guess you could have it." "I might have jobs for you too." This time it was the man that spoke. "Jobs?"_

"_Yes Jobs. I was thinking you could be a stable man since you seem to know horses, and your son could be able to be a knight some day." Samantha saw Jake's eyes narrow. "I saw the way he knocked that man out. I was wondering if he would like to be my daughters body guard."_

It took coaxing but now she had a friend, a horse and a groom. Luke had family. Five other boys besides Jake, and a wife. Her daddy had had a house built for Luke Ely and his family.

Samantha felt at home with the Ely's. She enjoyed the boys teasing her and she enjoyed teasing them back. She also knew that if she came over on Fridays Maxine Ely would have cookies for her.

She ran to the stable and up to Luke. "Good evening Luke." "Why hello, Princess Samantha," Luke greeted her with a smile. "Call me Sam, and could I please ride Wild One?" "Alright Sam and yes you may. But first will you please go get Jakob? You know that your father doesn't like you riding alone." "Yes sir." Sam trotted off to find Jake. Sometimes they called him Jake and sometimes Jakob. Normally Jakob. He had continued training to be a knight and it was completed a while ago and at the ceremony Samantha's father had knighted him Sir Jakob.

"Jake! Jakob! Where are you?" She gasped as a strong arm pulled her off her feet and then heard, "You were wanting me?" Once placed back on the ground she spun around to her attacker. "Yes Jake I called for you. I wanted to ride Wild One and your dad said to find you first." Jake jerked his head in a nod and then walked her to the stable. Samantha thought that he should have been the groom. He was so good with horses. It was like he spoke their language. Sam loved watching him with horses.

Before too long they were riding the horses. Samantha on Wild One and Sir Jakob on his horse, Lilian.

"Oh look at those beautiful flowers!" Exclaimed Samantha. "Aren't they beautiful?" Sir Jakob nodded and then dismounted. "What are you doing?" Jakob just grinned and then went over and picked some of the dark blue flowers. He heard Princess Samantha scream. He turned and saw what was happening. No! "Samantha!"

**I know I know. I'm a clifie. I'll update as soon as I can.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I got it done in one night.**

**Enjoy :) Please R&R  
**

Princess Samantha felt herself being lifted up in a pair of claws. She saw the look on Jakes face. Then she realized what was going on. It was a dragon attack!

She had only heard about them in books. They could be brutal and bloody if the dragon was hungry. There were also some kinds of dragons that would kidnap princesses and make them work for them. Some would force them to marry their ugly sons, some would boil them alive. There were also some dragons that saved girls from evil, but there was no evil here. Except the dragon it's self.

Sir Jakob drew his sword. "Unclaw her you evil dragon!" Samantha heard an evil laugh, "So you think you can tell Zared what to do?" Then a stream of fire shot out. Samantha screamed as it hit Jake's sword and burned it up. "I'll let you go. But tell the king that he's not going to get his daughter back with out a price." "A price?" "Half the kingdom, or I have this little girl," He poked Sam with his claw, "For my diner." Another evil laugh rang out and Samantha felt herself being lifted up in the air by the dragon. She couldn't help herself. She screamed. Then she looked down. Her eyes widened. She saw everything. She looked down at the meadow full of flowers. It looked beautiful. She relaxed and gasped in awe. "Whoa!"

The dragon, 'Zared?', noticed it. He loosened his claws as if he was going to drop her. She shrieked. He tightened his claws again. She wasn't able to relax to look at the view after that.

He landed by a cave. A red dragon, Sam thought that it was a male dragon, stormed out of the cave. "Father, make Ryba quit stealing my deer." Sam was sat down between two of Zared's claws. She looked up. She wished she hadn't. He was terrifying. He was huge and black. His eyes looked like coals. Burning coals. She looked back at the smaller red dragon. He wasn't as scary to her. "Father!" "Roscoe, you need to stand up to her." "Dad, I am not going to burn my twin sister!" "It's easy." "For you! You kill every one who doesn't do as you say!" The coals in Zared's eyes grew redder. "Son I want you to do as I say. Take this Princess and give her a room where she can't get out." The look in Zared's eyes said that if she ran she was toast.

He let her out from his claws. The red dragon, oh what was his name! Nodded towards her as if to say 'follow me'.

Samantha followed the dragon down a long passage way in the cave. Then he stopped. "This section will be for you." Samantha looked at it. Cold damp and dark. The red dragon had a remorseful look in his eyes. "I'm sorry it's so small and messy." Samantha turned her head to the dragon. "Did you say sorry?" He nodded. "I'm not what you would call a full hearted dragon." "Oh."

Samantha walked in the room and sat down on the wooden bed. "What's your name?" Samantha was surprised by the question. "My name is Princess Samantha Anne Forster, but I would like it better if you would call me Sam." The dragon smiled a toothy smile. "My name is Roscoe." "Nice name." Roscoe started to walk away and then turned back, "I have a sister. She may pay you a visit and what ever you do, don't make her mad." "Yes sir." Sam lay down on the hard wooden bed and cried her self to sleep.

_At the castle_

"King Wren! King Wren!" Jake was running to the castle. His horse had run away when the stupid dragon showed up. "King Wren!" Jakob had run about a mile and was beginning to get tired. "King Wren!" The last time he called he was beginning to sound desperate. His father came running, "Whats wrong Jakob?" "She was kidnapped!" "Sam?" Jakob nodded. "By who? Why didn't you fight him off?" Then seeing that his son didn't have his sword, "Where is your sword?" "A dragon. Named Zared I think. He evaporated my sword. What am I going to do! King Wren is going to execute me." Luke said nothing, but helped his son up and looked him over. His tunic was ripped from a rock he had stumbled on, and he had a scrape on his arm from another rock.

"Come on Jake. We're going to go talk to the king."

_A few minutes later_

"We need to speak to the king." They were talking to a guard in front of the throne room. "He's busy." "It is important." The guard gave Luke and Jake a look. Jake took a deep breath, "It's about his daughter." "Princess Samantha?" Jakob and Luke nodded. "Very well." The guard went inside the throne room.

In a few minutes he came back out. "He will see you." Jake walked in the throne room.

"What do you need Sir Jakob." "She was kidnapped!" "Princess Samantha?" Jake nodded. "By who? Why didn't you fight him off?" "I couldn't your majesty, he was a dragon." "A dragon!" Sir Jakob nodded again.

"Did he say his name?" "He said he was Zared. He was big and black with eyes like coals. He said that if you don't give him half your kingdom you will never see Samantha again." He wasn't going to say that he would _eat_ Samantha.

The kings eyes were covered in hatred. "He killed my wife." Jake's eyes widened. Now he knew how the great Queen Louise had died.

The king looked at Jake's appearance. "Why didn't you change before you came to see me?" Jakob hung his head. "I was worried about Samantha and forgot to clean up your majesty."

"Tell the head of the army that we are going to find the princess and bring her back.

Sir Jakob nodded a short curt nod. He walked out of the throne room. He was going to bring Samantha back and kill the dragon that had taken her from him.

_Out on the open meadow_

The Phantom lifted his head. He felt that there was a girl in danger. He protected damsels in distress.

He sniffed the air. His arch enemy Zared had a princess. Queen Louise's daughter!

Phantom had been good friends with Queen Louise. She had been killed by Zared and the Phantom had promised to himself that he would protect any of her children from that monster. He protected all girls but mostly Louise, her family and friends. The unicorns were born to protect girls.

He reared and went toward the direction of Zared's lair.

**Like the Phantom?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Third chapter. Please R&R Thank you :)**

Sam was huddled on the wooden cot trying to sleep. She heard noises Then an obnoxious voice outside the "door" of her room. "Hello little princess." She instantly knew who it must be. Roscoe's sister.

"I'm Ryba." "Nice to meet you Ryba." "Whatever." Then Ryba came into Samantha's view. She was a beautiful dark purple dragon. And the way she was acting proved that she know exactly how pretty she was.

Ryba walked so close to Sam that she could have touched her. Then Ryba quickly stretched out her neck and breathed a stream of fire. Samantha gasped and jumped back. Ryba smiled a toothy smile like Roscoe's, except it was an evil smile. Ryba rolled her eyes in a bored manner and walked out of the room.

Then she heard a shuffling outside of the room. She sat straight up listening. "Princess?" She let out a sigh of relief. Thank goodness. It was just Roscoe. "Please call me Sam." "Okay... Sam." The red dragon walked into her view. "I thought you might be cold. Here's a blanket."

Sam didn't get it. She thought evil dragons children were evil too. "Thank you Roscoe." She took the light weight blanket and laid it on the wooden cot. "Roscoe? Could I ask you a question?" "I guess." "Why is it that your dad and sister seem so mean but you're nice? I thought evil dragons had evil children." "My mother wasn't evil. She didn't know that my father was evil until she married him. I Haven't decided whether or not to be good or evil." "Oh." Roscoe looked at Sam shivering in the cold. Even with the blanket. He looked at the little hollow that would work as a fire place. He smiled at his idea and flew off into the night sky. Sam wondered what he was doing but she didn't have to wait long, because he soon came back, with a claw full of wood. He put it in the little hollow and then blew on it.

The fire was so warm. "Thank you Roscoe." Roscoe smiled a toothy grin. He liked making her happy. He turned and walked out of the little room.

Sam turned to the fire and thought. Where was Jake? Was Wild One okay? Was Zared going to eat her? She shuddered at that thought. No way did she want to get eaten by a dragon. Sam looked around the little area. She decided to explore it. She picked up a torch that was by the door and lit it in the flames of the fire. She looked around. She hadn't been able to see much except the wooden cot before, but now she saw that the room was bigger than she had thought. She saw a suit of armor in one corner. She had always liked the knight's armor, so she went over by it. To her surprise she saw a small, but sharp throwing knife. She had taken some knife throwing lessons until her father had found out and stopped her. Then she realized that she was surrounded with weapons. Weapons from Zared's past lunches probably. She took a piece of wood that wasn't in the fire place and began carving it with a dagger she had found. She had also taken carving lessons until her father found out and put a stop to it. Before to long a unicorn was formed. She didn't know how she had done it. She had only seen one picture of a unicorn. But she didn't remember where she had seen it. It had been a beautiful majestic white one, that looked as if he could take down any evil thing. She smiled at the unicorn she had carved and then put it in another hollow in the cave wall. Her eye lids were drooping. She snuffed the torch and put it back in the holder by the door. Then she crawled over to the wooden cot that now held a blanket and went to sleep.

_At the castle_

"King Wren?" Sir Jakob had found out more about Zared from the records books. "King Wren?" "Yes Sir Jakob?" "I have found out more information about Zared." "On how he can be killed?" Sir Jakob nodded. "How? I would do anything to get my little girl back." "You would need to climb the Golden mountain, ten miles away. Once you have done that you would have to journey even further up. Once you are so far up that you can't see anything besides clouds for miles and miles you must find the house of the wizard Luriana." "And the wizard will give me what I need?" Sir Jakob shook his head. "She will give you instructions on how to get to what you need and how to use it." "Do you think I could do it?" Sir Jakob looked at the king. He couldn't really be serious. He was. "No your majesty. We cannot let you go." "And why not!" "If you died we would have no hope. But if you stayed here and sent me in your place we would have a chance and if I died we would still have you as our great king."

The king nodded. "Go prepare for your journey Sir Jakob. Take your greatest weapons." Sir Jakob nodded.

On the way to the cottage that he shared with his whole family he thought.

_Why did I have to let her go riding yesterday? She got kidnapped by the worst of dragons because he had let her go riding. Now she was going to get eaten unless he completed this quest. _He didn't want to think about Princess Sam getting eaten. It made him want to puke.

He marched into the cottage where his oldest brother, Sir Kit, was polishing his sword. Sir Jakob marched over to the small room where his family kept their weapons, and got the family sword.

It was a long sword with a golden hilt, and a leather scabbard. "Jake, we aren't to use the family sword unless we are going on quests." "I am going on a quest." "Oh to where?" "The Golden Mountain." "And what are you going to do on the Golden Mountain?" "Find the wizard Luriana." "Why?" "To save the princess." Kit nodded to show he understood.

Sir Jakob was ready to go. He had a nap sack with bread and cheese, two canteens full of water, the family sword at his side, and his strongest horse, Witch. He told his family good bye and rode off toward the Golden Mountain.

_Near Zared's lair_

The Phantom could smell the dragons. He smelled a prissy stuck up female dragon, a male dragon with a good heart, Zared, and the princess. The Phantom smelled the fire in Sam's room, and the shavings from the unicorn she had carved. He lifted his head and neighed. Then walking towards the cave he touched his horn to the wall of it. An opening appeared. He calmly walked inside the opening. Into Princess Sam's room. Her head jerked up. She gasped. The Phantom touched his horn to the ground and words came out. _Princess Samantha, I knew your mother. I will get you safely home soon._

Samantha gasped. "You are the unicorn I saw long ago!" The look on The Phantom's face said yes he was, and that she should stay silent.

He walked over right next to Samantha and put his head over her shoulder, like he was hugging her. Then without warning, the beautiful unicorn disappeared. But the hope he had brought her about getting away from Zared was still there.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter four! Please R&R I'll add chapter five soon.**

Sam woke up in the morning. She wondered if she's dreamed the unicorn. She looked at the ground. There were no marks. She looked over in the corner. The weapons were still there. She looked in the little hollow. The unicorn was still there. She wondered why she had made a unicorn. She wasn't very girly and she liked horses better.

Then she remembered what her teacher had told her when she was learning how to carve. He had said, "You can know what you would like the wood to be, but the wood decides what it wants to be. You just help it to be what it wants to be."

She heard a bored voice coming from the door way, "My father wants me to give you some food." "Thank you." Ryba rolled her eyes. Sam got the feeling that Ryba didn't care if she ate or not. Then she had a feeling that Ryba wanted to eat her! She shuddered at that thought.

She had just finished eating when Roscoe came to the door. "My father wants to see you." Reasons why his dad might want to see her flooded her brain.

_Is he going to let me go? Maybe he's going to make me work for him. I hope not. He isn't going to eat me is he!_

She turned to Roscoe, "R-Roscoe?" Roscoe turned away from the wooden unicorn he had been studying and back to Sam. "Your dad isn't going to eat me is he?" Roscoe shrugged. He didn't know. but there was worry in his eyes. He wouldn't put it past his father to do just that. He led her out of the small cave room into a larger one. In it was Zared.

"Why hello Princess," His voice was mocking. "I have a little job for you to do." Sam gulped. Oh no he was going to make her be his slave forever! "I want you to sweep my entire cave." There was an evil smirk on his face. Sam's eyes widened. The whole cave! It had to have at least a hundred rooms. "Today you are to sweep Ryba's room, Roscoe's room, and my room. Tomorrow you can mop them, and if there is one spot when you are done you will do it over again."

Roscoe spoke up, "Father, I can sweep and mop my own room." Zared narrowed his eyes at his son and Sam stepped back in fear. Then he spoke, "She will do it." "But Father!" Zared narrowed his eyes until they were just narrow slits, and looked as though he could stream fire from them.

Roscoe turned to Sam, "I'll show you where my room is."

Sam soon had a large broom that she could hardly handle. Somehow the broom seemed familiar, like she had used one before, but she didn't know how or when.

She began sweeping. As she swept she thought.

_I wonder where Jake is. I hope he doesn't get hurt or fired because I got kidnapped. It wasn't his fault. I hope daddy doesn't get too upset about me. Is Roscoe really good or is he just pretending to be? Why is Zared's eye's like coals. I don't remember anything about dragons with eyes like hot coals. Why does he want me? Don't most dragons kidnap princess to eat or because their lonely? Sometimes if they have a grudge to that family. But he's not eating me, and he sure doesn't want my company. The one's that want servants make them do harder work than this._

She was interrupted by Ryba yelling at her brother, "She was going to clean my room first!" Sam rolled her eyes and since she had swept Roscoe's room went and sweetly asked, "Ryba, where is your room?"

_At the bottom of The Golden Mountain._

"Well Witch I guess this is the trail to go on." Sir Jakob had found a small but accessible path at the bottom of Golden Mountain, and was about to climb up it with Witch. He was wondering if the mountain would get harder for Witch higher up.

As they started up he looked at his surroundings. He saw rocks more rocks and sagebrush. He knew higher up he would see herbs that could help heal or poison. He hoped that King Wren was okay. He had been _really_ upset when he left. He was worried. Zared hadn't said how long until he would eat Sam. He then began wondering about Zared. He had read all there was about him but there wasn't anything about his parents or where he came from. The book of records just said that he just showed up.

He began to think about his family. _I wonder what they're doing right now. I wish that stupid dragon hadn't run off with Princess Sam. I hope he's treating her okay. Poor Wild One must be wondering what happened to her mistress. _He sighed, and leaned back in Witch's saddle. He saw a rabbit bounce past. It was pure white. He thought it was a very beautiful rabbit. The rabbit stopped and looked at him. He began to wonder if it was a sifting wraith waiting to eat him. He knew that shifting wraiths always had something wrong with them. He looked the rabbit over. It had two beady eyes, two perfectly shaped ears, a wiggling nose, two tiny front paws and two back paws that could really hurt someone. Then he stole a look at the tail. It was big white and fluffy. He decided that it wasn't a shifting wraith. Then he remembered about guardian rabbits.

His father had told him that they were pure white and would lead a person where ever they needed to go. He had always thought that they were made up but now he was wondering. The rabbit was just waiting for him. Sir Jakob nudged Witch forward. The rabbit hopped a couple steps. He stopped, it stopped. He backed up it hopped towards him. He shrugged, and let the rabbit lead him to a good camping spot.

_At the castle_

King Wren felt _so_ helpless. His daughter was kidnapped by the dragon that killed his wife, his daughters body guard was out looking for a wizard, and he could _nothing_ about it. It made him so mad. He looked out one of the castle windows. He could see The Golden Mountain from it. He looked close to the bottom of the mountain. He saw nothing. He sighed. Sometimes it stunk being the king.

_In the meadow _

The Phantom had an idea on how to get Sam home, he just wasn't sure if he could do it fast enough. He would need to visit his friend, Luriana who was a wizard and could tell him where to get what he wanted. He pricked his ears up towards the Golden Mountain. Some one was there. He lifted his head and smelled the air. He was glad that unicorns had such a good sense of smell. From the sent it was a boy on a mare. He didn't know what they were going up the Golden mountain for though. From the sent though, the boy was determined.

He didn't think that the boy was a threat, so he wouldn't hurt him unless he began threaten people or animals.

He lifted his head and sniffed towards Zared's lair. The princess was fine. She even smelled happy. She was like Louise. Not a sissy or a prissy girl. She seemed to be glad that her clothing was a little bit dirty, and from her sent he thought she was trying to make more, plainer, dresses from her dress and sash.

He sniffed towards the castle, something he hadn't done since Louise died. He smelled the king. He smelled how helpless he felt. The stallion reared. If he had anything to say about it Sam would be home before a fortnight was over. He reared once more before galloping towards the Golden Mountain. He was going to bring Sam home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's the fifth chapter. Please R&R**

The night before Sam had taken off her dress and wrapped her sash around herself so she would be descent. She cut her dress with a dagger until she had two or more long strips. She then wrapped one of those strips around her. She ran around in circles to make sure it wouldn't fall off. It didn't. She was actual happy. She couldn't believe that she was happy in a dragons lair. That made her laugh. She heard a dragon groan when she laughed. She gasped and looked towards the door with wide eyes. No one showed up, so she did what she should have done a few hours ago, wrapped up in the blanket and laid down on that uncomfortable wooden cot. She sighed happily. Only one thing was keeping her from being happy. She was worried about Sir Jakob and her father. They were probably so worried. She remembered that Zared had said that he was going to eat her if he didn't get half of the kingdom. She hoped that her father wouldn't give it to the evil dragon. She also didn't want to get eaten. But her father giving the dragon the land wouldn't keep her safe. He would just kidnap her again and threaten again. If he did things that way he could end up having the whole kingdom. That thought disturbed her. She slowly drifted off to sleep hoping that Zared wouldn't do things the way she had thought of.

She woke up in the morning frightened. She had dreamed that Zared had a beautiful red haired woman in his claws. He threw he up in the air and caught her in his mouth. She heard a scream, and saw her father holding a baby in his arms. The baby was crying. Then she realized, the baby was her!

"If my dream is true," Said Sam slowly, "Then that wretch of a dragon ate my mom." She growled in a very un-princess like manner. At first she wanted to go rip that dragon to shreds but remembered that he was much bigger and could breath fire. "What annoys your enemies the most?" Then she remembered sir Jake telling her that if you were sweet to someone you hated, that would annoy them so much. Then she wondered if it was wise to annoy such an evil dragon. "He killed my mother, he deserves to be annoyed.

She smiled to herself, and was still smiling when Roscoe walked in. He smiled happy that she was adjusting. Then he noticed the new dress. It was the same color as her other dress but not as dressy. His smile turned into a frown. If she had snuck into his fathers treasure collection she was going to be in trouble, but if she made it she was _not _a normal princess. "Princess Sam?" Sam turned to him with an exasperated look on her face. "I mean Sam! Where did you get that dress?" Sam smiled. "I made it." "Out of what?" "My other dress, and now I have about three and a sash." "Are you going to use the sash?" Sam grinned, and said, "I was thinking about turning it into a shawl." Roscoe nodded.

"Oh Sam! Ryba wants you to mop her room first. "Oh yeah, I do need to do that today."

She moped and as she moped she sang. It was a commoner song but she liked it anyway.

Roscoe appeared as she was mopping. She smiled brightly at him but then when he said why he had come the smile faded. "Sam. My father wants you to not sing." "Why?" Roscoe shrugged. Sam kept mopping but not as happily now. When Zared went by Ryba's room and looked inand Sam thought that she heard him say, "Why does she have to be so like her mother?" What did he know about her mother?

_At the castle_

"Your Majesty? Your Majesty!" It was Luke the groom. "Yes Luke?" "Wild One is going crazy, and I was wondering, could we take something of Samantha's to calm her down?" The king made a whatever motion with his hand. Luke took one of her plainer dresses knowing two things. One she wore them more so her sent would be stronger on them, and two, King Wren wouldn't mind if it were one of the plainer ones that got messed up.

The king sighed. Everything was going so wrong. His daughter was gone. Her horse was going crazy. Her body guard was on a dangerous mission. Oh it was terrible. And he could do nothing about it. Then an idea hit him. He knew it was dangerous but he was going to send 50 troops to bring Zared and any children he had to their knees.

_Up on the moutian_

Sir Jakob had gone to sleep. When he woke up the white rabbit was gone and he was alone with Witch. He sighed and got up. That was when he remembered his fathers warning about putting his food up in a tree. It was too late. His bag of food was gone. He was _so_ glad that he had snuck a small crossbow in his bag of weapons. He pulled it out and began leading Witch to find a rabbit or something to eat. He felt a little weird at eating a rabbit, as one had gotten him safely thus far, but aside from mountain goats there was nothing else to eat, and he couldn't eat a whole mountain goat.

He sighed. Poor Sam she must be having a terrible time. A small rabbit hopped by. It was brown, furry, with a big fluffy tail and black beady eyes. It hopped away before he could shoot. His stomach growled. He had _never_ heard his stomach growl like that before. Not that loud. He was sure people on the other side of the earth heard it. He ignored his stomach best he could and looked around for some herbs that held off hunger. His mother gave it to him sometimes. Mostly when they were going on a hunting trip. It tasted awful, and he didn't know what it was called.

He saw some and began to pick it. He would eat some after he ate whatever he caught.

He would have raided a birds nest of the eggs, but it was the wrong season for that. He groaned. He was so hungry. Then he groaned again knowing that his groan had most likely scared off any prey. He laid down waiting for rabbits to hop back into view, and unknowingly he fell asleep. When he woke up Witch was looking at him as if she were saying, _He's_ a d_ummy. we're on a journey and he's taking a nap. _"Sorry Witch," he whispered. Then he heard hopping sounds. He got ready to shoot the rabbit that came in sight, but one of it's fellow rabbits saw him and thumped a warning signal. Jake was starving and the rabbits would let him shoot just one of them.

A mountain goat went by, but he wasn't going to shoot it. He couldn't eat all of it and it wouldn't continue be good if he just carried it around with him. He found himself beginning to wish that mountain goats were slightly smaller. His stomach growled. Then he found himself telling his stomach to shut up and quit scaring the rabbits away. When he realized what he was doing he looked at Witch and said, "Oh help. You know a man's hungry when he starts talking to his stomach."

Then at perfect timing a rabbit hopped out in front of him. Almost before the rabbit had a chance to escape Sir Jakob pulled back on the bow. But once more he didn't get his meal. A huge unicorn was standing in front of the rabbit with a stern look on his face.

_Else where on the mountain_

The Phantom was keeping an eye on the strange boy. Last night he had found the boy and had watched him all night. He was about a mile away from the boy but could see him quite well. He was suspicious about the boy because last time someone had scaled this mountain they had left as an evil being. He hoped this boy didn't plan on finding any thing that would make him evil.

The Phantom watched as the boy tried to hunt rabbits. He was glad that the boy hadn't gotten one. _Foolish boys,_ he thought_ Hunting when they don't need it. If he was going to be going to the top of the mountain he would have brought food. _

That was when he saw the boy about to hit a rabbit with his arrow. _Foolish young rabbit. You have much to learn. And you will learn it. If you don't get hit, _he thought to himself.

The Phantom galloped silently and stood in front of the rabbit. He glared at the boy. Why the boy wasn't as young as he had thought. He had thought about fourteen but this boy looked near seventeen. He should know better.

"Whoa! One of my friends would love to see you." The boy seemed breathless. The Phantom snorted. The boy sighed as he looked at the rabbit bounding away. "It was nice seeing you, but you made my meal run away." The Phantom was surprised. He was really going to eat it? He wasn't hunting just for sport?

The Phantom touched his horn to the ground, "You were really going to eat that?" The young man shook his head at what he just saw. "Um yeah!" Phantom touched his horn to the ground again, "I am so sorry. I thought you were one of those boys that hunts just for fun." The boy shook his head. Saying both no, and wondering if this was for real. Then he realized why the unicorn had bounded in front of him. "You thought I was just going to kill it and leave it," He said thoughtfully. The unicorn bobbed his head up and down. "My name is Sir Jakob, or Jake whichever you wish to call me." The unicorn was studying him intently. Then he touched the ground with his horn again. "I am the Phantom." The boy didn't say anything but looked towards where the rabbit had disappeared. The Phantom took off. The boy, Jake, stared after. He was about to begin looking for rabbits again, when the great unicorn appeared again with lettuce. The boy nodded his thanks and began to eat it.

Once he was done the unicorn asked a question. "What are you doing on the Golden Mountain?" "Looking for something that may save my friend." The unicorn wondered if he was telling the truth. "And who is your friend?" "Princess Samantha." The unicorn instantly knew what the boy was doing. "Sir Jakob, I know the way to where you are going and I have met your friend. I know your friend by her mother." Jake's eye's narrowed. "I wish to save her as do you." Sir Jakob knew the risks of traveling alone. He knew what a help it would be to have someone who knew how to get there.

"Then let us travel together." The unicorn agreed and they were off once more.


	6. Chapter 6

**Here is the sixth chapter. Enjoy :) **

Samantha wondered what Zared knew about her mother. She herself knew very little about her mother. She had seen portraits of her mother, but could only remember a little about her. Her father always said that her mother died when she was only one year old, but didn't say how. Maybe her nightmare was what had happened.

Then out of nowhere she heard a female voice, not Ryba, and defiantly not her, say, "Zared, I do not love you, never loved you, never will love you, and all hope of me ever loving you flew out the window when you kidnapped me." Samantha's eyes grew wide. She couldn't imagine speaking to a huge dragon like that. But the woman wasn't done. "You think you can get all you want by bullying, just because you're a dragon." "I wasn't always a dragon." This time Zared's voice sounded more like a human voice than a deep husky dragon voice. "You may not have always been a dragon but you were always a bully."

Samantha could almost picture the lady speaking. She thought that the lady should be tall, with blue eyes and flaming red hair. "Like my mom." She said softly to herself.

Zared wasn't done either, "You made me a bully!" "How did I make you a bully?" "You met that man and married him. You knew that I loved you!" "If you had loved me you would have told your _friends_ to stop chasing me, and if you had made them stop I would have never met, _that man,_ as you call him." She could picture the lady's eyes shooting flames.

Then she heard Roscoe's voice, "Father, I think Sam is asleep and you shouldn't wake her up." Then Sam heard a gasp. "Sam? Short for Samantha?" Sam heard the evil laugh she had come to recognize. "Why yes dear Louise. Wasn't your daughters name Samantha? _Princess_ Samantha? Well Louise, I will soon own the whole kingdom, and you _will_ be my bride. Whether you want to or not. See after I get half, I will kidnap her again, until I own it all. And if King Wren is all you say, he won't be able to let me eat his only girl will he." Samantha's eyes were wide. This Dragon was entirely evil. Not one inch of good in him. And if he was talking to her mother... No her mother was dead. She was confused. She began shaking her head in confusion.

How could Zared have her mother. If her dream was true then he had eaten her. Could he have brought her back to life? Was her mother his forced wife? No, Roscoe had said that his mom didn't know that his father was evil. It sure sounded like this lady had known this man and that he was _human_ at one point. A bully. And then she had met her father. If so her mother was a commoner. If so she was half commoner. She decided to quit thinking confusing thoughts and get back to trying to sleep.

It was impossible. Maybe the unicorn would come back. Then she had an idea. "Roscoe?" She heard shuffling, and Roscoe's red head appeared in the doorway. His eyes looked worried. "I couldn't get to sleep, and I was wondering if you have any books I could read." Roscoe's eyes looked relived for a second and then as his eyes took on a worried look he said, "What would a dragon need books for?" Sam shrugged, then Roscoe continued, "But we do have a small library." Sam's eyes lit up. "Could, could I read some of the books?" "They are mostly history books and other boring things. "Boring! I like things like that." Roscoe smiled. She sure wasn't a normal princess. "I will have to ask my father." Samantha sighed as he walked out of the room. It wasn't likely that Zared would say yes.

But surprisingly, he did.

Sam loved every minute in that library. No one cared what she read, so she read books about swords, dragon history, books about war fare, and other books that her father would have freaked if he saw he reading.

As she was deep into a book about the art of war, when she looked up and saw a strange man. He had hair the color of burning coals and black eyes. She gasped, surprised. "Oh hello." She smiled and stood to her feet. The man nodded. "Not to be rude sir, but who are you?" The man seemed a little shocked, like he hadn't been expected to be asked that, but answered. "Laszlo. And who are you?" "Sam" "Sam, strange name for a girl." "It's short for Samantha." "Like the princess?" "Um yeah."

Sam hoped that he didn't catch on that she was Princess Samantha. She hated being treated with so much respect. It drove her crazy. It was like they wanted to be her slaves and she didn't want slaves.

There was something familiar about this man. Something that uneased her. She didn't know if it was his piercing black eyes, or his hair the color of coals. The color of Zared's eyes. She shuddered. "Are you cold?" Samantha's head jerked up. She had been thinking about him, and had forgotten that he was still there. "No."

She needed to find out more about Zared and 'Laszlo'. Could she trust him?

_Up the mountain_

Sir Jakob had been so tired. He hadn't been able to sleep much that night. He looked at the Phantom. He seemed well rested. The Phantom looked at the young man and his horse. Witch was tired. Jake was tired. The Phantom wasn't tired. He was used to sleeping out in the cold. He felt somewhat sorry for this human boy that had been shivering all night. He wasn't sure why the horse was so tired though. He touched noses with Witch and said, in horse of course, "What's the matter Witch." "I was cold." Came the black horses answer. "Do you sleep in a stable at home?" Witches head bobbed a little. Well that explained that.

Horses that sleep in stables aren't as used to the cold as the ones who don't.

A noise came from the edge of the path. The Phantom and Witch jerked their heads up, and Jake whipped his head towards the side of the path. The Phantom lifted his head and smelled the air. Witch snorted nervously. Jake narrowed his eyes. The Phantom plodded over the side of the road, and spotted the one making the noise. It was a small girl, with brown eyes and long brown hair. Jake heard a gasp and came over to see what The Phantom had found. The little girl didn't even look at him, she was to busy staring at Phantom. "I never thought I would see a unicorn." She was awe struck. Jake looked her over. She was about eight and was missing a front tooth. He also saw a bruise on her cheek. After standing there with her staring at The Phantom for about ten minutes, Sir Jakob cleared his throat. He head jerked towards him, and her eyes filled with shock, surprise and a little bit of fear. She didn't say anything but just stared at the young man, as if she was afraid he would hurt her. "I am Sir Jakob, but if you wish you may call me Jake. What is your name." He saw the big brown eyes staring at him intently. He raised his eyebrows waiting for her to answer. Her nearly silent answer was, "Lily." She answered with a sweet timid voice, as only a little girl can. He remembered the surprise that he got when he found out that Princess Samantha wasn't a normal princess. She didn't talk so sweet, because she wasn't shy or timid. In fact she tackled him many times and he couldn't tackle her back or he would get into trouble.

"Well Lily, what are you doing up here? There's no village's near by that I know of." Lily shook her head. Jakob couldn't believe that this little girl was reminding him of Sam. He shook thoughts of Sam aside for the moment. This little girl could be lost. "If there's no village near here what are you doing up here?" He could tell she was wondering if she should tell him the truth or lie. He knew that because she was much easier to read than Samantha and he had to know how to read Sam in order to protect her sometimes. "I'm hiding from my daddy." "Why?" She turned her eyes away from Jake's. "My daddy is mean." She was telling it blunt like only a child can. "Why? What does he do." She turned her face. This time so that Jake could get a good look at her bruise. He saw that the bruise was about the size as a mans hand. "I see." He looked at the Phantom. They thought the same thought. Jake picked up Lily and put her on the Phantoms back. Lily's face broke into a huge smile.

"You're coming with us." "Where are we going?" "To meet a wizard." Lily's eyes grew large. She was silent during a good portion of the trip, then just as Sam would have done said, "I'm hungry, and why are we going to visit a wizard?" "Hang on I'll get you some food, and I'm trying to save my best friends life." "Okay." "Jake kind liked this little girl. He remembered when he had just started to be Samantha's friend

"_Okay, now I will understand if you want to play with... dolls," Jake had to force the word out of his mouth, "Being both a girl and a princess, but I don't really want to." "Good cause I don't have any we can play with. I have one my mommy used to have but I don't play with her." Jake studied the girl in front of him. She didn't want to play with dolls? "Okay then you will most likely want to play dress up." "I'm ten, and dress up is for girly girls." Jake's eyebrows went up. This was one strange princess. "Then what do you do for fun?" "I try to read and play in the dirt." "Play in the dirt?" "Yeah the commoner children do and its fun." "Fun?" "You don't like it?" Jake couldn't believe this princess. In all his twelve years he had thought that princess were the pros at being girly. This one wasn't He started to kinda like her. Not in any way like that, more of a 'I think I could handle being friends with a girl if it was you', kinda like._

"_What else do you like to do?" "Tackle people." "Oh yeah, well try to tackle me." She not only tried she did. He fell to the ground with a grunt, then stared into her grinning face. He was going to have his hands full._

Jake was smiling at his memories, and Lily saw it. "Why are you smiling when you need to save your friend?" "Oh I was just thinking about some things." Lily watched that boy. He was cute she thought. She had seen cute boys in her little village but none of them were trying to save their friend, or that cute. Now she was smiling.

_At the castle_

King Wren was in front of the army of troops. "Look, I know he is an evil dragon, and I know he could kill you, but we must get my daughter back." one of the knights called out to the king, "Didn't Sir Jakob say that he would bring back what we would need to kill him?" "I don't care the sooner that my daughter is back the better." "But if he kills us..." The kings eyes narrowed. "My wife was killed by that dragon, and I don't want him to have my daughter too!" His voice had raised to a shout.

The army looked at one another. They knew he wasn't going to back down. They were going to march into death. "When do you want us to leave?" "Tomorrow at sunrise." The people in the army of soldiers went to tell their wives good bye, because it was unlikely they would ever come home again.

The king knew what he had done. And he didn't care. All he wanted was his daughter. His Princess Samantha. He didn't think that Sir Jakob would get back soon enough. That dragon was going to die. And he was going to die soon.

**Please R&R**


	7. Chapter 7

**This is a longer chapter then the others. Please R&R :)**

Samantha woke up shivering. She had gone to sleep in the library, and had woke up to people talking. She narrowed her eyes hearing voices. It was Laszlo, and a woman that looked nearly exactly like her mother. She was wearing a long flowing white dress, and golden earrings.

The woman was speaking in an icy tone. "I will not marry you. Even if you kill Wren I will not." _Wren? My fathers name is Wren. _Samantha watched through slitted eyes. The woman's eyes looked like blue fire. "I will kill Wren, and you _will_ marry me! I will let your daughter live, _if_," The man's eyes looked liked Zared's except black. "_If_ you will marry me. If you don't marry me..." The man's voice trailed off, stating the danger that would happen if she didn't.

The woman didn't look fazed at all, then she said, "Laszlo, didn't we have this conversation yesterday? When your son told you to be careful to not wake up Sam?" That surprised Sam. She couldn't have been having the conversation with Laszlo. She had heard _Zared's_ voice. Then she listened to Laszlo's voice carefully. She didn't listen to what he said just his voice. It _did_ sound like Zared's voice. Weird. Then he shouted, and Samantha nearly jumped.

"You are a selfish woman!" The lady slapped him, "You are selfish." Samantha struggled to think of something that would distract them. Then she remembered something Kit, Sir Jakob's oldest brother had taught her.

She did her best nearly awake voice, "Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a padded room with rats. Rats? I hate rats. They drive me crazy." She stretched a little bit. She heard Laszlo, or Zared, she wasn't sure which, shoo the woman out of the room as she started up again, "Crazy? I was crazy once. They put me in a paaaaa," She yawned and stopped saying the weird little poem. "Oh, hello Laszlo." "Why hello Samantha. How are you this fine morning?" "I am fine." She was hoping beyond hope that Zared, or Laszlo, wouldn't see that she had wheel turning in her head. Then she had an idea. "Why are you here?" She tried to put a girly worried look on her face. "Did the dragon kidnap you too?" "Um... What is the dragons name? Do you know?" Samantha tried to look puzzled. "I think it's something like Zari." "I think his name is Zared." "Oh yeah that sounds better. Did he take you captive?" The man changed the subject again. "Yesterday I saw you reading, why do you now seem like such a..." He paused for a second to think on how to word it, "A girly girl." "Oh I have split personalities." Laszlo nodded his head at that. Then Sam asked, "Did Zari take you captive?" "Zared? You have nice hair my dear." "Thank you. Did he?" She wasn't going to let it go.

But she had no choice because there was a mighty shout as fifty of her fathers soldiers crashed into the room.

Laszlo pushed her out of the way before the soldiers could see her. That made her think that him and Zared were the same person. Laszlo pulled his sword out of its scabbard. 'What are you doing here? This is my home!" The leader stopped charging. "I thought that this was the home of the evil man slaying dragon Zared." Laszlo's eyes narrowed. "No this is _my_ home."

After the soldiers had left the den of Zared Sam stepped out of the little place where Laszlo had pushed her. "This may be your home, but it is also Zared's home." "Oh? How so?" "You are the same person. Or dragon. What were you first?" Laszlo's eye's narrowed. Yes he was Zared. Only Zared could narrow his eyes so menacingly. Sam wasn't scared now. Zared turned into his huge dragon self, and acted like he was about to blow flames on her.

_Up the mountain_

"We're almost to the top, Jakey." Lily was smiling a huge smile. She had enjoyed her ride on the Phantom's back, and even more so, snuggling up to him in the night. The Phantom had seen how cold Sir Jakob had been the night before, and invited him and Witch to sleep close to him too.

Jake smiled at this little girl. His first impression had been right about her. She was sweet, but also very energetic. He thought back on Sam. She had been _very_ energetic but not so sweet. She had been a full on tom-boy. Lily was a tom-girl. He had girls divided up in his head. Girly, Really girly, Tom-girl, and Tom-boy. Girly girls cared a lot about their looks, but not as much as the really girly girls who wouldn't step outside unless their hair was _perfect_. Tom-boys, were a lot like boys but were forced to behave like girls a lot of the time, and tom-girls are somewhat girly and somewhat boy like.

He kept his eyes trained ahead to see a house or smoke. Anything that would tell him that the wizard was up ahead.

Lily saw it first. "Look smoke!" Jake looked ahead and saw it. "We're nearly here." He was so relieved. They were nearly to the house of the wizard Luriana. Once they had gotten to the house Lily seemed already to go, but the Phantom pushed her back with his horn. Sir Jakob said, "Lily you stay here with Witch." Lily stayed a bit away from the black horse, because even though she was tired, she was still as witchy as ever.

Sir Jakob and the Phantom walked up to the door. The Phantom tapped the door with his horn. Before too long a tall slender gray haired lady came to the door, "What do you people want from me? I turn you into a dragon, but no, you want to be able to be a human too, I give you that and you tell your friends, your frien-" The lady broke off suddenly when she saw who it was. "Why Phantom what are you doing here? Wait I will let you speak for a moment." The woman whisked a small wand out of her sleeve. The wand was a silverish gold, mixed with another color he didn't recognize. He stared at the lady. Although she seemed old she was very beautiful. Almost like a fairy. Nearly invisible sparks flew out of the wand, and then the Phantom spoke. "My friend and I have traveled far. We are to rescue the daughter of Queen Louise." "Queen Louise? She had a daughter? I didn't know." "We need the herb to kill Zared." "Killing Zared would be hard, even with dragonsbane." Jake ventured to talk, "Why?" The old lady looked at Jake with a sadness in her eyes. "He is not fully dragon. The dragonsbane may weaken him, but then you would need archers and swordsmen ready to kill." "Where would we get dragonsbane?" The Phantom stated in the voice that Jakob was still not used to, "I know where a large patch is. I can take the boy to it and he could pick it." Sir Jakob was about to ask why The Phantom couldn't pick it but then remembered that he was a unicorn and didn't have hands. "Then why did you come to me?" "I was hoping that you could tell Sir Jakob here how Zared came to be." Luriana nodded and walked away. "Where is she going?" The Phantom didn't answer.

Sir Jakob was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to get back, when she appeared. "Is there anyone with you two?" "Lily, and my horse Witch." The woman said nothing to that but walked out the door, and Jake and The Phantom followed.

On the way to the patch of dragonsbane, Luriana told the story of Zared.

"He came to me one day with a dragon. This is before he's a dragon mind you. And he tells me that the dragon is his girlfriend and that they wish to get married. He asks if I could turn him into a dragon. I did it because I knew they female dragon that he came with. I turned him into a dragon and he took the name Zared. It means ambush." "What was his name before?" Luriana gave Jake a look and said, "Sir Jakob, I told him that I would keep his name unmentioned, and even though he is now evil, a wizard always keeps her promises."

Sir Jakob's mind wandered away from the search for dragonsbane and to Sam. _She's going to be of marrying age soon. I wonder who King Wren is going to try to marry her to. I'd like to see him try to marry her to someone she doesn't like. It would have to be royalty that hasn't met her because for some weird reason princes don't like headstrong princesses as brides. I wouldn't mind having one. Did I just think that? Okay Jake, there is no way that you could marry her. She is royalty and you are not. So I still want to marry her._ Sir Jakob shook his head to clear it of the strange thoughts he was having.

The wizard looked at him, and then smiled a knowing smile. Had she read his thoughts? She couldn't have. Okay she could have. She wouldn't have. His mind wandered off again

_Hmm I wonder if those weird dreams meant I liked her. I've always liked making her mad. I don't know why. _Then another voice drifted into his mind. _You think that she is cute when she is mad. Oh, and the reason she is more headstrong than most princess's is because her mother was a commoner._ His head jerked around to Luriana, who smiled nicely at him. She looked as if she were about to laugh out loud.

He wondered if he could think thoughts to her. He tried. _How do you know that Queen Louise was a commoner? _There was no answer. As he was about to give up that it was her a clear thought came into his head. _I knew her before she had met Wren. When she met Wren they fell in love._ "No really!" He didn't realize he had said it out loud until he saw that Witch, Lily, The Phantom and Luriana were staring at him. Then Luriana realized that he had been answering her and had answered out loud on accident.

She laughed a fairy like laugh. Jake turned bright red. Lily had a puzzled look on her face. "Why are you laughing Miss Luriana?" The wizards eyes twinkled as answered, "Perhaps Sir Jakob here would like to tell you?" Sir Jakob glared, which made the wizard laugh even harder. The Phantom stopped in front of a large patch of dark green herbs. They didn't smell very good. In fact it kinda smelled like a dead body. _Wait how do I know what a dead body smells like? _Wondered Sir Jakob.

"Is this dragonsbane?" Luriana nodded. "If it is dark green with pointed leaves and smells like a dead body, it is dragonsbane." Jake looked at the vast patch of dragonsbane. "Well Jake, what are you waiting for. Get off your horse and pick some." He was about to ask why him when he realized that Luriana was telling The Phantom a way to get into Zared's den without him knowing and putting it in his food, Lily was sitting on The Phantom's back and couldn't get off with out falling, and Witch didn't have hands. He slid off of Witch's back and bent to pick some of the terrible smelling herb. The thought that there might be some unique way of picking it. "Luriana?" "There isn't a _right_ way to pick it. Just pick it. Oh and here is a basket for you." "Oh, um, thank you."

Before too long the basket was full. "Lets go kick some dragon butt!" Luriana looked at him with her eyebrows raised. He turned red again.

_At the castle_

"I know that that was his cave!" "A human man was there. He said it was his house." The king was angry. His soldiers came back empty handed. The king had never been so mad in his whole life.

"Princess Samantha could get eaten by that dragon, and you didn't even ask where he lived!" "we didn't think-" "No you didn't think. If you had been thinking you would have tried to find my daughter!" "Your Majesty, we did!" "All of you! Just get out of my sight."

The fifty men scrambled out of the throne room as fast as they could.

"Lost my wife, lost my daughter..." He muttered. He remembered when he first saw Louise.

"_Stop chasing me! Stop! Laszlo, make your friends stop!" "No way!" Prince Wren looked out the castle window. There was a beautiful red haired commoner. She was running as fast as she could but she was also getting tired. He looked at the scene a little closer, and saw the people she was running for. About four big tough looking boys were chasing her. Four and they were all bigger than her. One of them had a stick, and over to the side was another sullen looking boy. He had bright red hair the color of a glowing coal. The girl looked over to him, "Laszlo, please stop them." She was pleading and he just turned his head away. She stumbled on a rock and scrambled back up, her dress torn and her knee bleeding. _

_Prince Wren had had enough. He sat on the edge on the window and jumped off, bracing himself for the jolt when he landed. He climbed over the wall that kept him in and them out. He fell when he jump though. The girl turned to look at her attackers and ran into him. She looked up then in a pleading voice, "Please stop them!" The anger in Wren's eyes made them turn and run._

"_Who are you?" He was quite taken with her, as his father would say. "Louise. My father is Aurthur, a carpenter and my mother is Gwen, a seamstress." "I am Prince Wren." He saw the girls eye's widen as she tried to curtsy. Wren grasped her arm to keep her from curtsying, and she winced in pain. "I'm sorry did I hurt you?" The girl, Louise, shook her head, "No, I fell and skinned my knee."_

_It was an instant friendship. He taught her how to fight, and she taught him that it was good to be curious . They had gotten married on her 17th birthday, when he was 19 and all was well. No one knew that the Prince's wife was a commoner, and no one cared. _


	8. Chapter 8

**I think this will be the next to last chapter. I'm not sure though. Enjoy, and R&R :)**

After Zared had seen that he wasn't going to scare Sam, she was too much like her mother he turned back into Laszlo and told her his story.

"You see Samantha, I loved your mother so much, and when she met the prince and fell in love with him and married him, I met a dragon. She was beautiful, but I still loved your mother. So I hatched a plan." Sam glared at him. "Yeah you turned yourself into a dragon and kidnapped my mother hoping she would remember you and fall in love with you." "No. You see I couldn't just turn myself into a dragon, but I knew of someone who could. An old woman that Louise used to know. Luriana I think her name was." Sam glared. "I went to her with Rachel." "Rachel?" The man rolled his eyes in a _how stupid can you get _manner. "Ryba and Roscoe's mother." "Oh" "I went with Rachel knowing that the wizard would be more likely to help me if there was a respectable dragon like Rachel with me. She was wizard and I begged her to turn me into a dragon, saying that we wanted to get married but that it was impossible since I was a human and she was a dragon. The fool of a wizard did just that. Sam hadn't known there were any wizards around. She had heard that they were all dead or moved away from this part of the world.

My wife laid two eggs the day that I kidnapped Louise." Sam bristled at the 'kidnapped Louise' part, but didn't say anything. "I was all for smashing them but Rachel wouldn't have it." Sam was shocked. She shouldn't have been though, Zared/Laszlo was down right evil. He would even kill his own children. "I went and kidnapped your mother, and then when my wife threw a fit, I got rid of her." "You killed her!" The dragon glared at Sam. "No I turned her into a cute little bunny!" Sam flinched a bit at his sarcasm, then balled up her fists. She sat there glaring at him with balled fists, wishing that she was bigger or that he was smaller and couldn't turn into a dragon at moments notice. She sighed and listened to the rest of his story.

"Yes I killed her. And there's no bringing her back, _or _me freeing you and you mother." Sam didn't look at him. Didn't speak. She just wanted him to get out of the library.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and without hesitating to notice that it was a lighter and gentler hand then that of Zared/Laszlo, she whirled snarling at, her mother?

She gasped and stepped back. Her eyes were wide. This woman that Zared/Laszlo was claiming was her mother looked exactly like the portrait of her mother in the castle.

"Are you my mother?" The woman looked like she was about to cry. Sam wasn't sure why she was going to cry but she was.

The tall slender woman nodded. "Yes. Yes I think I am." "You think?" The woman looked her straight in the eye, "Laszlo/Zared, doesn't have a reputation of telling the truth." Louise could see Sam looking her over.

"You look like the portraits of my mother that I have seen." Sam then had a great idea. "You tell me my full name, first, middle, last, and then if you know them all you may possibly be my mother."

Louise smiled. It hadn't taken long for the girl to get an idea of how to test her. "Samantha Anne, Anne with an E not A-n-n, Forster. Other names that were considered were Ruth Anne, and Jewel Anne."

Sam's mouth dropped opened. If this woman wasn't her mother there was no way that she could know those other names.

"Yeah." Sam was speechless. She couldn't say anything. Her mother, that she had thought was dead was very much alive and being held captive by an evil dragon, that was trying to make her marry him. This was going to take a while to process.

Louise could tell that it would take a while, so she smiled and left saying, "If you want to talk, just call out my name."

After Louise left Sam wondered what name she meant. "Does she want me to call out Louise, or mother?" She shrugged and picked up a book about knifes. In less than ten minutes she was learning how many kinds of throwing knifes that there were.

_At Luriana's house_

Sir Jakob hadn't said much since that comment about kicking some dragon butt, he didn't want to embarrass himself.

He had been walking with his head down all the way to Luriana's. He was deep in thought. Even now that he was _at_ Luriana's he was still thinking deeply. "Here Jakob," Said Luriana, handing him a cup of hot herb tea. He absentmindedly took it. He took a gulp and yelped in pain. "OW!" "Jakob are you okay? I told you it was hot."

Jake stuck his burnt tongue out of his mouth to cool it, and turned to Luriana. At the funny look on her face he put his tongue back in his mouth. "I didn't hear you," He muttered. "That is quite obvious." She looked at the pain on his face and knew that he couldn't think about anything except how much his mouth hurt.

She wasn't sure what he had been thinking about before, but was sure that it was something about Princess Samantha. Or Sam as he called her. Sometimes he referred to her as a brat too.

"Here Jakob, here's some herb that will cool the burn." Jake took the leafy green herb that she handed him, and sniffed it. It smelled like mint. He sniffed it again, then stuck a piece in his mouth. It tasted like mint.

His tongue almost immediately felt better. He couldn't feel the burn anymore. He turned to Luriana.

"The herb, what is it?" "It's a herb that my wizard friend invented." Jake's eyebrows shot up. "There's another wizard? I was surprised when I heard that you were around here, and now there's another wizard too?" Luriana laughed. "There is about one hundred wizards in the earth, about one fourth is evil and the rest are good like me. There are two in this area. Me and my friend Merlin-" "Merlin you mean the great wizard of history? I though he had died!" He interrupted. He wanted to be sure so he could tell Sam.

"No, not that one. You didn't let me finish. My good friend Merlin the _fourth." _"Oh." "He made the herb from the aloe vera plant, to cool the burn, and mint leaf for a taste or smell." "How did he combine it?"

Lily stared at him for a little bit and then said, "Jakey, he's a wizard. All he has to do is say a spell or whirl his wand." Luriana smiled.

"You are right, he is a wizard, all he has to do is say a spell, but he doesn't have a wand." Lily's eyes grew wide, and she tilted her head to the side, silently asking why. "Instead of a wand he has a large staff that he uses in its stead."

"Luriana, I really like you,but we need to rescue Sam before Zared eats her." "I agree, but how are you going to get the Dragonsbane into his home so he can eat it?" Before Jakob could speak Lily said, "I could sneak in and give it to someone like Princess Sam who could get it in his food." Only Luriana noticed the small shake of the head that Jake gave. The Phantom was too busy looking at Lily in surprise and Lily was looking right at Luriana.

Jake had a definite frown on his face. "No." Lily turned to him surprise on her face. "Why not?" "I can't lose two girls." "I want to help the princess!" Shouted Lily losing her temper and stomping her foot. Jake shook his head. Lily lunged at him, and he grabbed her hands. "I'll think a little more about it, okay?" He said, knowing that he would still say no, but hoping that she would quit trying to pound her fists into him. Lily nodded and quit trying to pound on his chest.

The Phantom nudged Luriana, and she knew that he had something he wanted to say out loud, so she whipped out her wand and lightly touched his muzzle. As soon as she had done that he spoke up, "I think we should bring Luriana with us. We would get there faster and she could turn Lily invisible. Lily could walk through a hole in the cave that I would make, and she would give it to Princess Samantha, tell her what to do, you," He said gesturing to Jake, "Would then ride Witch as fast as you can, to the castle and tell the king what is going on, he would bring soldiers and catapults to kill Zared and what ever children he might have. If Samantha is as smart as you say then she will get out of the cave, and be safe through out this."

Jake thought it through. It sounded like a good idea, but what if something happened to Sam and she couldn't get out. "Something might happen to Sam. She might not be able get out." "True, but perhaps I could help her if that happened."

Jakob shook his head. Luriana smiled. "Jakob, I will run and tell the king. I could get there faster than you, and you could protect Princess Sam." Jake nodded.

He had this huge protective feeling for Sam all of a sudden. What was up with that? Well he was her body guard maybe that was it.

_Yeah that's it. I'm protective of her because I'm her body guard. I need to feel protective of her. I've been protecting her ever since I was twelve. What will happen when she gets married? I won't be her body guard anymore will I? Her husband will pick a new body guard. I won't ever see her. That can't happen. I won't let it. If it's true that Louise was a commoner then maybe I could marry Sam. Well if she'd let me. I don't think she feels the same way as I do. If we survive this I'm going to ask her how she feels. I sure hope she feels the same way._

"Jakey every one but you is ready to go." "What? Oh. Tell them I'm coming." He smiled as Lily ran off. She really reminded him of Sam. Sam! He needed to get going.

Outside the door was a _huge_ carpet. It was big enough for three horses.

"Come on Jakob, we need to go." Jake put one foot on the carpet like he would a toe in the water to see if it was cold. The carpet seemed safe. He put the other foot on the carpet, and stood on it.

"Jakob, sit down, you'll fall off if you stand on it." He sat down, and the carpet was off.

_At the castle_

"Where is Sir Jakob! How long can it take to talk to some wizard!" King Wren was worried and being worried made him mad. Jake had been gone almost a week. _Princess Samantha will be of marrying age if she survives. We can rule out any prince who has met her. They all think that she is too wild. Perhaps I could find a commoner that would marry her. I married a commoner. Perhaps she could too._

He put his head in his hands as a guard came through the door.

"Your Majesty, there is a lady at the door and she wishes to speak to you. She says it is urgent." "Tell her that if it won't help me get my daughter back, I don't want to see her." The guard stepped out for a few minutes.

_What am I going to do? Zared ate my wife when Samantha was just a little baby. I wouldn't put it past him to eat my daughter too. _

The king sighed as the guard came back in the room. "She says that it is urgent and that if you don't come, a plan to kill the dragon will be wasted and that some people might die." "Fine let her in."

In walked a woman he had never seen before. An _old_ lady! "What news do you bring?" The lady smiled. "I am Luriana, the wizard. We have gotten Dragonsbane into the home of the dragon, and we need warriors to kill him while he is tired." "I thought that Dragonsbane killed a dragon the instant that they ate it." "Zared isn't a full blood dragon. Get warriors and catapults on the path and I'll explain."

"Guard!" A guard came into the room. "Yes your Majesty?" "Send two hundred soldiers back to the cave with catapults and have them kill any dragon in there."

As the soldiers marched Luriana explained to the king all about Zared/Laszlo.


	9. Chapter 9

**I think only one more chapter after this. Hmm that sounds familiar. R&R please :)**

Sam felt a hand on her arm, and she turned to see who it was. No one was there! She decided she had just imagined the hand, when she felt a hand again and heard a whisper. "Princess Sam!" Sam closed her eyes and begin thinking.

_Okay, why am I hearing voices? I've heard that when people hear voices they are insane. I guess it could be a ghost. _

She stood straight and turned to where she had felt the hand, "Are you a ghost?" She heard a responding voice say, "No, my name is Lily, and you need to take this." Sam felt something being shoved in her hand. When she looked in her hand she saw a dark green leafy thing that smelled like a dead animal.

Se wrinkled up her nose and turned back to the voice. "Is this Dragonsbane?" "Yeah, what you need to do is put it in that dragons food and then he'll get weak." "I know what to do, but how did you know where I was, how did you get in, and how did you know I was in trouble?" "I met sir Jakob, and he let me go with him, The Phantom showed me where you were and got me in, and the wizard Luriana turned me invisible."

Sam heard Jake's name and was so grateful that he was okay. Wait, he was okay wasn't he?

"Is Jake okay? Luriana? My mother knew her. Who's the Phantom? Oh and could you tell Jake not to kill the red dragon?" Lily scrunched up her face trying to do what her older brother had done with her before he'd helped her run away. Sam couldn't see it though and thought that Lily had left.

"Are you still there?" Lily suddenly remembered how to do what she had wanted to do. "Yes, yes, cool, white unicorn, sure, and yes."

Sam closed her eyes she remembered Jake doing that to her. "How long have you been around Jake?" "Couple days." "Has he done that with you?" "No but my brother used to. By the way I've got to go, and you need to poison the dragon dude." Sam laughed a bit at the 'dragon dude' part, but went to find her mother to have her show her where to put the Dragonsbane.

_Who is Lily? How old is she? Jake is lucky he gets to marry who ever he wants. He probably won't want to marry me. Besides, Daddy will probably marry me off to some prince of a far away kingdom. _She sighed. There was no way that she would be able to marry Sir Jakob. He was just a commoner. Wait wasn't her mother a commoner? Maybe she could marry Jake after all!

"Um, Louise, Mother?" She couldn't find her mother. She'd been here a few minutes ago. Where was she now?

"Mom? Where are you?" Her mom stepped out of a room in a bath robe. "Yes Sam?" Shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of her mom wearing a bathrobe, Sam answered, "I met an invisible girl and she gave me some Dragonsbane to put in Zared/Laszlo's food." "He isn't fully dragon you know. It won't kill him like it would a normal dragon. That was how he killed his wife. He went up the Golden Mountain, and gathered handfuls of it, then he gave it to his wife, he was tired for a few days but it didn't kill him." Sam nodded, "The voice told me to put it in his food and that he would get tired and someone would kill him." "Who would kill him?" "I don't know. My dad, Sir Jakob, one of the other soldiers." Sam shrugged.

"As long as he's gone I'm fine with it." Said Louise. "Here I'll show you where the kitchen is."

It the kitchen her mom whipped up Laszlo's favorite meal. Fried chicken. "Here sprinkle it all over the chicken." Sam did as her mother said. "Um Mother?" "Yes Sam?" "Could we make sure that Roscoe doesn't eat any?" Her mother nodded. "See, he's been kind ever since I got here, when Ryba and Zared were all mean." "Alright sweetie, but we shouldn't tell Roscoe what we're doing, Zared is still his father." Sam nodded. She didn't quite get that though. Why would anyone want to protect a jerk of a father?

_Outside Zared/Laszlo's cave_

"Guys I'm out now." Lily had stepped out through the small opening that The Phantom had made for her with what little magic he had.

Jake turned to the voice, "Lily? Where are you?" He felt a small hand on his hand, "Right here Jakey."

Jakey was her official nickname for him. He didn't mind it too much, because she was a little girl, but for some reason he didn't like being called Jakey. "Do you know how long I'm going to be like this?" "Invisible? No."

Then the gold and blue flying carpet landed next to The Phantom, with a sick looking king and a wizard on it.

"Luriana!" "What was that?" "Oh that was Lily. I turned her invisible so that she could sneak into the cave and give some Dragonsbane to Princess Sam."

"Luriana, how long am I going to be invisible?" "How long do you want to be invisible?" "I don't any more."

Luriana smiled and whispered a little spell that made Lily turn visible again.

When King Wren saw how old Lily was he didn't believe his eyes. Well more how _young_ she was. "What are you thinking letting a child going in there?" Jake hung his head, and Luriana was about to answer him when Lily pipped up, "They didn't want me to go, but I wanted to help the princess." She looked King Wren right in the eye. The king still didn't look too happy, but what's done is done, and there was no reversing it.

There was a mass of soldiers, and one catapult.

Lily scrunched up her nose. What had Princess Sam said to tell Jake? She couldn't remember. "What's the matter Lily?" "Sam wanted me to tell you something but I forgot what it was." "Was it important?" Lily nodded. "You'll remember it if it is so important." "But it was very important and I forgot." "It's alright Lily you'll remember it soon." "But I might not soon enough." Her lower lip was stuck out and she was about to cry. If she didn't remember some one was going to get hurt! That much she remembered.

Every one whipped their heads towards the cave, "What did you put in my food!"

"Good they got it in his food, and he's eaten it." "They?" Lily turned to the king. "They. I saw a pretty lady that looks a lot like Princess Sam and I thought she was going to help out too." "There were two ladies?" Lily nodded. "Is that what Samantha wanted you to tell Sir Jakob?" Lily shook her head no. She wrinkled her brow, then her whole face lit up as she remembered. "She said not to kill the red dragon!" "Not to kill one of the dragons! She must be insane. Of course, she's a girl, she doesn't know what she's thinking. She must think he's a pretty dragon. All of those dragons will be dead by tomorrow."

Lily stared at him in shock, then she look at Jake, "Jakey, you aren't going to let him kill the dragon that Princess Sam likes are you?" Jake thought about it.

_Why would she want to spare the life of a dragon? Is it a baby and she wants it for a pet? I wouldn't put it past her, she always has been like that. Other princesses want pearls, she wants horses, other princesses want ball gowns, she wants normal clothes, other princesses want cats, and now it seems she wants a dragon. I don't think she should have a dragon. It could turn evil and kill her._

He shuddered, not knowing that much the same kind of thoughts were going through the king's mind.

_She always has been more of a tom-boy princess, but one of those things ate my wife, and kidnapped her, and now she wants to keep one! That's not happening. Even if it didn't hurt her now, it could turn evil and kill her._

He narrowed his eyes. He hadn't meant to, but the way he narrowed his eyes scared Lily, and she ducked behind Jake looking like she was about to cry.

"I-I'm sorry your majesty. I-I didn't know you'd be so upset." A tear fell from her doe brown eyes, so like his only daughter's. "Oh, you're okay, I didn't mean to frighten you." Lily still hid behind Jake. There was something in his eyes that had reminded her of her father. He father who beat her for no reason. She still had a tender bruise on her leg. Luriana had been able to help her with the bruise on her face. He mind flew back to the day before she had run away.

"_Lazy girl!" "Daddy, I'm only eight, I can't do anything else. There's nothing else to spin into yarn, I've changed the baby's diaper, milked the cows, washed what few dishes we have, there's nothing else to do!" "You're just saying that!" Her father lifted his hand high above his head. Lily cringed. Her father laughed. He enjoyed scaring her. It was then that he noticed the cheese in her hand. She had gotten hungry from all the work she had done, and hadn't been able to eat breakfast. She hadn't even named all the work she had done! _

_He fathers eyes narrowed. "Whats that?" She cocked her head to the side. "In your hand you brat!" "The cheese?" "Yes. Who told you you could have anything to eat?" "I'm sorry. I can put it back." She lower lip was trembling. She stepped forward to go put the cheese back but her father punched her in the face. That was how she had gotten the bruise Jake had seen. The cheese dropped from her hand as she raised it to her throbbing face. "Now look what you've done! Good cheese ruined!" Lily fled out of the small cottage and ran into her big brother. She put her arms around his waist, and cried into his belly. He hugged her close then pushed her gently away and nodded for her to follow him. She did. _

_Once they had gotten to Bradley's favorite tree he gave her a small copper coin. "I found this before anyone else. I want you to go buy some bread and leave. Father isn't going to hurt you." Lily couldn't say anything so she put her arms around her brother and cried for a little bit. "Bradley, will I ever see you again?" "I'm not sure. Only if it's safe."_

_That was the last time she had seen Bradley for a long while._

Lily tugged on Jake's sleeve, and he looked at her. "Jakey could we bring my big brother here please?" Jake looked at the king. The king nodded. Why not? The girl seemed to miss her big brother, so why not.

He didn't have time to say anything else, because Zared stumbled out of the cave, trying desperately to turn into a human. He couldn't breath. "What did you put in my food!" Sam walked out as well. "We added a seasoning, do you like it?" Zared barely coughed out, "Dragonsbane?" Then another voice came into the mix, as another beautiful maiden walked out of the door. "Yes, Dragonsbane. Ya like it?" A red dragon stumbled out, staring in shock at Zared stumbling around trying not to collapse.

He looked at Sam. "Where did you get it?" "Get what? The Dragonsbane?" Roscoe nodded, not believing that Sam would try to kill his father. "Some invisible girl gave it to me." Zared coughed again and collapsed.

One of the soldiers stalked up to the fallen dragon and pulled out his sword. Sam looked at Roscoe to see how he was taking this. He had his eyes shut. He wasn't going to stop the man, but he wasn't going to watch either. Sam walked over and put her hand on his shoulder, and buried her head in her elbow. She didn't want to watch the bloodshed.

Jake saw it, and his jaw tightened. No that dragon was _not_ going to stay alive. He couldn't believe that he was jealous of a dragon but he was. He glanced back at Zared. Blood was coming out of his throat and the great dragon was dead.

The whole party of soldiers let out a loud cheer. Jake turned to the king. "Your orders were to kill all the dragons we saw were they not?" The king nodded, and Jake was about to charge with a spear, but a female voice stopped him.

"Whats all the commotion about?" The red dragon turned towards the voice. Oh boy. Ryba was _not_ going to be happy about this.

Ryba took one look at Zared and let out an enraged shriek. "Who killed my father!" She looked around the group of people, then narrowed her eyes at Roscoe. "Why didn't you protect our father Roscoe?" He didn't answer. Ryba took a deep breath and flew above Sam. Only Roscoe knew what she was going to do. She blew fire right at Sam.

"No!" Roscoe flew above her protecting her from the flame. Ryba looked at Jake who was still holding the spear. An evil grin came over her face much like her father's used to be. She swooped above Jake and blew a even hotter fire.

It bounced right back at her. Her belly burned but she wouldn't admit that the human part of her burnt easily.

Luriana stepped out of the crowd. "I think that this little dragon would make a better bunny than a dragon." With a flick of her wrist Ryba was gone, and in her place was a brown fluffy rabbit with no evil thoughts.

Roscoe stepped out and went to Luriana. "What about me?" Luriana looked him up and down. "You can go back in your cave, but if I hear of you bothering anyone you're next."

Jake couldn't help but notice the small hug that Sam gave Roscoe, or the smile he gave her. It made him angry, but since the king was nodding at the way Luriana had settled things Sir Jakob couldn't do much about it.

Then King Wren spotted the woman next to Sam.

"Louise!" After that no one could really make sense of anything. Wren was hugging Louise, and Sam, Lily was jumping up and down squealing with excitement, trying not to let her hurting leg bother her, Jake was trying to hug Sam just a little bit, Luriana was smiling happy that they were all together. If anyone had looked for The Phantom they wouldn't have seen him anywhere. His work was done, and so he was going back home.

Sam saw Jake, he had given up on trying to hug her and was standing slightly away from everyone else. Sam ran up to him and hugged him. He almost fell over from both, shock and the suddenness of the hug, but recovered himself and returned the hug.

Sam looked around for the girl that she had "met" before.

"Jake, where's Lily?" She was surprised, but happy when he pointed to a little girl about eight years old.

She hadn't meant to but she sighed in relief. She turned to where her face was towards her mother and father and her back was to Jake, but she kept a hold of his hand and snuggled into his chest. Jake was shocked. Then he realized what might happen if the king saw them. "Sam!" He hissed, "If your dad sees..." Sam stepped forwards a bit and let go of his hand.

Jake took a quick look at her face and realized that she was blushing bright red. Did she like him? If so for how long had she liked him?

_Back at the castle_

"Louise, Samantha is now of marrying age, and it is common now days for the queen to pick out a groom for the princess. We have many eligible suitors, and I would like you to tell me who you think would be the best one for our daughter."

The king showed her the stacks of portraits, and letters asking to marry Princess Samantha.

As the queen looked through them, glad to be back to her duties, she noticed that it was only princes in the list, and no knights.

"Wren?" The king heard her call, and left his throne room where he and some of the knights were talking, and came to see who she had chosen.

"Who have you chosen dear?" Louise sighed. "The one I had thought would be a good match wasn't here." "Who were you looking for? Prince Rupert? He got married so he's out of the picture."

"Aren't the Knights sometimes married to the princesses?" Asked Louise, avoiding his question. "Yes, but there is only one of my knights that I would even think about letting her marry, and I doubt that he would want to marry her or that she would want to marry him." "Who?"

King Wren walked over to the desk and looked through the portraits. He held up one, and said, "I doubt he could handle Samantha." Louise laughed. "You didn't answer me though. Which one of your knight would you let marry her?" "Her body guard. Sir Jakob." Louise smiled. She had heard a bit about Jake. Her daughter would tell her about him sometimes.

"He was the tall boy with black hair, that Sam ran over to right?" The king nodded.

"He is the boy I was looking for in the list of names." "Would you like to ask him?"

Louise nodded and turned to go find him.

**R&R**


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you for all the reviews. I _thought_ this would be the last chapter but I was wrong, so I won't say this is the next to last chapter this time. Please R&R  
**

Sam was thinking about everything that had happened over the week. Although she hated to admit it she had missed Jake.

_I can't believe how much I missed Jake. He calls me a brat! Why would I feel this way about someone that calls me a brat? I'm almost 17, and daddy is for sure going to marry me off to some prince. I am so glad that Prince Rupert is out of the picture. That guy just wants a pretty dopey wife anyway. Besides that, he's not even cute, and he's mean to horses. If I was married off to him I would run away. I wish the princess was allowed to pick her own husband like the commoner girls. I guess my dads next choice would be Prince Andrew. He's kinda cute, and nice to horses, but I doubt he could handle my wanting to explore and travel, and well I doubt he could handle me being me. Jake could._

Sam shook her head softly. _I need to quit thinking about Jake. I'm probably not going to get to marry him anyway._

She heard a soft tapping on her door, so she got up and opened the door a crack. It was Luriana, and Lily. Lily hugged her the moment she opened the door. Sam hugged the little girl back, and smiled at Luriana.

"How long are you going to stay Luriana?" Luriana shrugged. "I'm not sure, but today I am going to help Lily find her brother." "I hope you find him soon." "I'm sure we will."

Sam loved Lily. She was so sweet and cute, it made her sad to hear that her father had been beating her. "Do you think that I could go too?" "No Samantha," Luriana sighed. She wasn't sure if she should tell Sam or not.

Sam was surprised. Luriana had called her Samantha. Luriana let out another sigh. "Your mother told me that they are going to introduce you to your husband to be."

Sam's jaw dropped. Her eyes were opened wide with shock. How in the world could her parents do this to her? "Who? Did they tell you who?" Luriana shook her head. "Do you know anyway?" Luriana shook her head again. Sam sighed once more. "I didn't think that they would marry me off that fast." She choked back some tears. Luriana sighed. She shouldn't have told her so soon after being home.

Luriana put her arm around Sam. "It will be okay. I can read minds, but your mom was blocking her mind from me. All I can tell you is that you will like the person they picked."

Sam looked at Luriana. She liked Jake and that was about it. Unless it was one of his brothers. They were okay, but she didn't _like_ like them. She needed to think about this.

Luriana stood up to leave, and hugged her gently.

Why hadn't they told her? She had a right to know. She was the one marrying him for goodness sake! If it was that one stern prince that had just nodded ever so politely at every thing she had said, she would scream.

_What am I going to tell Jake? He's so protective, and he won't be my bodyguard once I'm married. _A tear slipped down her cheek. She had just got home and she was going to be married off. She held the small carved unicorn she had made her second night at Zared's cave and wondered where The Phantom was, and if he would come back.

"Oh well, I'll just pretend I haven't heard any thing, and I don't want to get Luriana in trouble."

_Else where in the castle_

"Sir Jakob," The king was nervous. What if Jakob said no? "You know that Princess Samantha is old enough to marry." Was he imagining that Jake had gasped? He ignored the gasp. "I was wondering if-" Jake interrupted, "You want me to help sift through the princes don't you?" Then realizing that he had interrupted the king said, "I apologize for interrupting." "It is alright, but no."

Jake was surprised. Wait, was he going to say his services were no longer needed? _No no no. What ever you do, do not say that my services are no longer needed!_

"I was wondering, well, I don't know how to say this." Queen Louise walked into the room. "Have you asked him yet sweetie?" King Wren shook his head. "Would you like me to?" With a pained expression the king nodded.

"What we were wondering is, would you like to be the Princesses husband?"

Jake's eyebrows shot up in shock. They wanted him to marry Sam?

"Please give us your answer before tonight."

_What in the world? I can't believe that they asked me to marry Sam! Why me? What would Sam say? Would she marry me? I would hope she would say yes. I need to go find her and talk to her about it._

"Is that all you were wanting me for?" Queen Louise and King Wren nodded. "Oh and Jake?" Jake turned to Queen Louise. "Please let me know your decision by sunset, because we are having a party and if you are going to marry her we will announce it." Jake nodded and left the throne room.

Outside of the throne room he leaned up against the wall and sighed.

_Oh wow! I'm ready to march over to her and marry her right now, but... I need to find out where she is._

He saw Lily running along with Luriana, and stopped her with a hug. "Jakey! We're gonna go find Bradley!" "Really? I hope you find him soon." "Me too," Said Lily putting her arms around Jake's neck. "Hey Lily, do you know where Princess Sam is? "Uh huh! She's in her bedroom." She gestured for Jake to lean forward, and he did so. "She's gonna get married. Luriana said that Queen Louise was gonna talk to the guy about it."

Luriana watched for Jake's reaction. She tried reading his mind, but he had blanked it out. He didn't seem surprised, or upset, in fact it looked like he was about to grin. Could he be the one they had wanted to marry her to? She hated it when someone blanked out their mind like that.

"Well alrighty then. I need to go talk to Princess Sam." "And I need to find my brother!" "Alright. I will see you when you come back." Lily hugged Jake one more time and then grabbed Luriana's hand and said, "Comon Luriana, we've got to find Bradley soon."

Jake smiled at Lily as she walked down the hall. She was so sweet. Maybe he could adopt her. He sure wasn't going let her dad have her back. He would even adopt Bradley if necessary.

He got to Sam's door. He sighed and lightly tapped on it.

"Who's there?" Called out Sam. "Jake." The door opened and he saw Sam's face streaked with tears. "What's the matter Sam?" Why was she crying? She wasn't the kind of girl that cried. "I-I found out th-that I'm going to get married!" "Really?"

Sam was surprised. Why wasn't Jake upset? Didn't he realize that if she got married he wouldn't be her bodyguard anymore?

"Sam," Sam noticed that Jake was blushing a bright red. "I- Well- Your father- Would you be upset if I married you?" Sam shrugged. Why was he asking? There was no way it was going to happen. "I don't know." She _did _know but, she knew she couldn't marry him, so she decided to say something kind of with two meanings. "I would rather marry you than Prince Andrew."

Jake had a twinkle in his eyes. He thought that comment had been funny. Then his eyes got serious. "Sam, I want you to be perfectly honest with me. How do you like me?" For a minute she looked shocked, then her eyes got mischievous. "Hmm. You're okay fried." Jake stared at her for a moment, and she giggled. Then he got the 'joke'.

"Sam!" She began to look like a cornered animal. Sometimes cornered animals attacked. He hoped she didn't.

"Why do you want to know? I'm going to meet the person I'm gonna marry tonight, so even if I do like you like that, I'll never work!" Another big tear rolled down her cheek.

Jake leaned close to her. She got a tingling feeling deep down in her stomach. He grinned at her reaction, then leaned in farther and whispered in her ear, "I think that if it's okay with you, I'm gonna be your husband."

Jake heard Sam's sharp intake of breath, and saw the pure shock in her eyes.

"Y-you? M-m-me? Marry?" Jake nodded. "Um, Are you okay with that?"

_Am I okay with that? Am I okay with that! Duh I'm okay with that! I've loved him ever since I turned twelve. Of course I'm okay with marrying him! Now if I could just spit out the words!_

"Um um... Well- I-" She licked her dry lips. "Well, um Jake... Me marry you?" Finally a sentence!

Jake nodded. "Sam, if you don't want to marry me I'll understand."

Sam's jaw dropped. "Not marry you!" "Well, you are sending me mixed signals. I can't tell if you want to marry me, or if you are horrified at the idea."

Sam decided to do something that would shock her mother and father. Maybe even shock Jake.

She stepped forward so she was closer to Jake, and kissed him. It wasn't just a peck on the lips either. It was more of a- well, more of a _not_ peck on the lips.

"Ya still getting mixed signals?" Jake shook his head in disbelief of what had just happened, and that no he sure wasn't getting mixed signals.

"So do you want me to tell your mom and dad that you're okay with us getting married? Sam nodded with a smile, and hugged Jake one more time before he set off to let her parents know that they were both okay with it, and that the party should go on as planed.


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm pausing this story to work on some Christmas stories, that I want to publish close to Christmas. I _will_ update though. I promise.**

**Iluvhorses1997**


	12. Chapter 12

**I went ahead and published my Christmas stories early, so I finished this chapter. Don't want AceTrace mad at me ;) R&R please :)**

Sam looked in her closet. Why were these clothes so fancy? Oh yeah she was a princess. She groaned. She didn't like dressing up like this, but since it was a party in her honor she had to.

King Wren had told her to dress fancy, so she looked closer at the two dresses she had picked. One was a full forest green dress, with a white lacy ruffle, and along with it went a pure white corset, that could be laced so tight that you were about as skinny as a thread. The other was a midnight blue dress with creamy insets, and such a light blue corset it almost looked white. Then unable to make up her mind, she looked in the shoe compartment.

She groaned again. Satin slippers! Before all she had was high heels and now she had satin slippers. They weren't quite as bad, but it hurt worse if people stepped on your toes by accident. They were in all different colors.

"Well lets see, the white ones will go with anything, and the cream ones will go good with the blue dress, and these lavender one with the other one. I think." Sam sighed.

"I think I'll wear the blue one."

She pulled it out of the closet and held it up against her. "I sure hope Sarah doesn't lace me up too tight."

She slipped out of the comfortable blue dress she had made at Zared's, and into the beautiful ball gown.

She sighed as she slipped the slippers on her feet. She liked being barefoot.

There was a light tap on her door and Sarah walked in.

"Oh Your Highness, you didn't need to get dressed by yourself!" Sam bit back the 'I wanted to get dressed by myself', and said, "I just need to be laced up now though."

She squeaked when Sarah yanked at the stays.

"Sorry your Highness, but you must look your best for the announcement." "I know I know, I'm going to be introduced to my husband to be. And guess what Sarah," She said flinging her head around to look at her and said, "He couldn't care less what I wore."

Sarah laughed. "Oh Princess, you don't know who he is. Only your mother and father do." She chuckled again. "But I heard that Princess Jenifer is going to come up with her family. When you were nine you got on great together." "I just hope she hasn't changed," She muttered. "Hmm?" "Oh.. Um.. I hope nothings changed!" "Well you sure haven't changed. I sure hope Princess Jenifer has." Sarah huffed. "Going into the armory and chopping off her hair." Sarah was now shaking her head and huffing at the same time. "And then sneaking out of the castle grounds and buying a commoner boy's clothes! Now if it had been a commoner girls clothes it would be a little bit different. But a boys!"

Sam was shaking with silent laughter. "Hold still." Commanded Sarah, and Sam tried to hold still she really did, but just thinking about all the antics she and Princess Jeniffer had pulled off together made her laugh.

Sarah gave up lacing her any tighter and huffed, "I guess you won't get to show off your beautiful hourglass figure." She shook her head and huffed out of the room.

Glad that she had finally left, Sam flopped on her bed and remembered some of the things that she and Jeniffer had done.

"_King Wren!" Sam wasn't to excited about these visitors that the castle was having. King Dodge, and his wife Queen Samarah. She had heard about a daughter about her age, and she was hoping beyond hope that she wasn't like all the other princesses, who were already talking about princes and how awful it was to even go near a stinky smelly horse. She for one liked stinky smelly horses!_

_The other tall kingly man hugged her father, and the lady next to him shook his hand, then turned to the carriage they had arrived in. "Princess Jennifer? Come on out of the carriage." "NO!" "Come on Jenny, there's another princess here and I'm sure she would love to be your friend." "I don't want to meet her." Then King Dodge spoke. "Princess Jeniffer, if you are not out of that carriage by the time I count to ten you are not, I repeat, not, going to get to spend any time with your horse when we get home."_

_A horrified looking blond girl appeared at the door of the carriage as King Dodge started to count. _

"_One. Two-" "I'm out I'm out!" "So this is Princess Jeniffer?" Sam sighed. Her father was going to go on a rant on how beautiful Princess Jeniffer was._

_While her father was 'ranting' about how lovely Princess Jeniffer was Sam studied the girl. _

_She was about the same height as her, maybe a little bit taller, she had blue eyes, as blue as the sky, and sparkling with mischief. Her dress was- wait, eyes sparkling with mischief? _

_She looked closer at the girl in front of her and realized that she was being studied as well, so decided to mimic one of the coach men that was standing next to the carriage flirting with one of the milk maids that had come to deliver milk._

_She stood straight and wiggled her eyebrows, while smoothing an invisible mustache. She tried to keep a straight face but it didn't work once Jeniffer had started giggling. Before too long they were laughing so hard they were clutching their sides. It was __**not**__ a delicate princess giggle. No where near one._

_They knew from then on they would be friends._

"_Come on Sam!" Hissed Jen. Sam crawled under the wall, and shuddered. "Oh Sam you aren't getting girly on me are you?" Sam shook her head and explained. "I was scared that the wall was going to fall on me!" Jen nodded understanding, then jerked her head towards the big open dirt road. Sam followed. Jen stopped next to the road next to a bush that hid them, and pulled the small dagger out from under her long skirt, and began chopping at her hair with it, until it looked like a boys, then turned to Sam. "I could do yours too if you want." Sam shook her head. She would be in enough trouble if her father found out she had sneaked out of the castle grounds and she was sure to get in even more trouble if she cut her hair too. She walked out into the street and right up to a commoner boy about their age. _

"_Um, excuse me please, I was wondering if maybe I could buy your clothes from you." The boy stared at her in shock. Then shook his head no. Jen's shoulders slumped, and her bottom lip stuck out._

_The boy rolled his eyes. "How much?" "How much will I pay?" Jen cocked her head to the side as if thinking about how much money she could spare. "Hm. Will three small gold pieces work?" The boy's eyes grew wide and he nodded._

"_Um, you do have other clothes too right?" The boy nodded and disappeared inside a small cottage, and came out again wearing other clothes and carrying his old ones. _

_Jen's face lit up and she handed over three gold pieces, then ducked behind a bush. Sam followed, and when she saw what her friend was doing gasped. "Jen! I know we aren't really girly, but we shouldn't get dressed and undressed with boys present!" She had spoken louder than she had meant to and all the boys began howling with laughter._

_Jen emerged from behind the bush wearing the boy's old clothes and carrying her old ones._  
"_I thank you kindly for selling me your old clothing." And then she turned to Sam and said, "Sam if you want some I could ask if he has more to sell." _

_Sam turned red and shook her head. "Aw come on Sam why not?" "My father is more strict than yours. I would get in to so much trouble." "Okay then. Come on. We need to get a movin." Then turning once more to the boy, "Thank you again. I am forever indebted to you." The resulted in more laughter. From both sides._

That hadn't been all, but Sam knew she needed to hurry and get down to the ball room right away.

_Else where in the castle_

"King Wren, Queen Louise, I will marry your daughter if you still wish it." Sir Jakob was nervous. This was the first time that he had ever had to make such a serious choice. He was just glad he had talked to Sam first.

"Of course we still want you too. There's no other person we would want." Queen Louise smiled at Jake.

Then King Wren spoke. "Did you hear that Princess Jeniffer is coming for the party?" Jake paled. "Um, your Majesty, is this the Princess Jeniffer that was Sam's accomplice?"

King Wren arched his eyebrow. "Sam?" "I meant Princess Samantha. I am so sorry." The king nodded. "But enough about that, you need to look your best. Go to your family's cottage and get your best clothes on." Jake nodded and walked away.

_An hour later._

Sam was up in her dressing room having her hair being fussed over, and she was wishing _so_ much that she could just tie her hair up in a pony tail like she used to, but no, they had to do a big poofy hairdo, with ribbons everywhere!

She heard a carriage outside, and wondered if it was Jen.

"Princess, you are going to get to wear your beautiful tiara today." Sam froze in horror. "There, now you're holding still."

_Oh no! Not the tiara! That thing hurts my head so bad. There is no way I can wear it. I must protest!_

"I protest!" "Against what? Your hair?" "No that painful tiara!" "Now Princess, you must wear the tiara. You are going to meet your betrothed tonight. Now hold still!" "My betrothed wasn't my betrothed until tonight, _and_ he couldn't care whether or not I was a princess or not!" "You don't know that lassie," Said Gretchen, a girl from Ireland. "Yes I do!" "And would you mind explaining how ya know that Lassie?" "I know that because I know who my betrothed is."

It was evident they were no longer listening to her. She sat there, just letting them pull her hair out of her head. Well that's what it felt like.

"Here's the tiara Princess!" Sam had no idea why the ladies in waiting were so happy about this tiara stuff.

Once the _very_ heavy tiara was placed on her head she stood up and walked towards the door. When Janice went to follow her she said, "Janice, I think you should stay right here. I will be fine!"

She walked down the stairs and heard Jake.

"You can't go up there. She is getting her hair done." "Getting her hair done! Not the Sam I knew and loved." Sam was going to walk down the stairs, but she thought that it would take too long to get down there, so sat on the banister and slid down.

"Jen?" The tall beautiful blond looked towards the stairs. "Sam? Sam! I've missed you so much!" "Jen!" The two girls embraced. "I heard that you're getting married off!" Sam nodded mutely. "Who is the, um gross prince?" "He's not a prince at all! He's perfect!" Then looking over at Jake colored.

Jake walked over to her. "And so I'm perfect am I?" Sam turned redder and nodded. Jen's jaw dropped. "You mean you're marrying that annoying guard?" "I know he's annoying, but I'll teach you ways to annoy him back if necessary." Jake rolled his eyes and stepped out of the room.

"Oh Jen, I've missed you so much!" "I've missed you too!" The girls hugged again. "Do you remember when I got a dagger out of the armory and cut my hair so short?" Sam laughed, "Oh yeah. I also remember you buying that one boys clothes, _and_ the horrific punishment you got!" They both broke out into laughter. "I couldn't believe that my father made me muck out my horse's stall for a week!" "Do you want to do it again?" "What? Muck out stalls? No! It's kinda gross." "No not that. Sneak out again." Jen's eyes lit up, and she nodded. "Tomorrow? After the party thingy?", but I guess I would do it if I had to Jen nodded again, then grinned and said, "Aysay ourfay?" Sam grinned and nodded. (If you don't know pig latin that means, 'say four')

"To leave?" Jen nodded. Sam's eyes took on a mischievous look. "Are you going to chop off your hair again?" Jen laughed and shook her head. "Daddy said that if I do that again, he's going to sell my horse." "I see. Better not chop your hair then." They laughed together and walked off towards the ball room together.

_At the party_

"Good evening Princess Samantha." Sam turned and saw Prince Jonathan bowing. "Would you care to dance?" "No thank you," She said shaking her head.

After having every single prince in the world asking to dance with her, Sam ducked into a corner and watched all the other people dance. She looked for Jake, but couldn't find him. Jen had also disappeared. Sam just stood there hiding from any of the other princes that might ask her to dance.

"I hear that her best friend is her body guard!" "You're kidding!" "Nope. I also heard that when Princess Jen was here last year, they snuck out of the palace." She heard a gasp. "They could have gotten kidnapped!" "I know, but those girls, I think they were adopted as commoners." "Yeah."

Sam's royal temper was flaring, and what the girls said right after didn't help. "And her body guard isn't even of any kind of royal birth." "Is that why he is so ugly?" "Yeah I-" The girl was interrupted by Sam stepping out from her hide away, and saying, "How could you! Jake is _not_ ugly. If anyone is ugly it's you!" The girls stared horrified. "Oh and I was not adopted. Were you?" One of the girls burst into tears and ran off, but the other one lifted her chin and said, "I know why your family is marrying you off. It's so you won't be getting into trouble and leaving the palace, or anything like that. Oh, and they just want to keep you away from Jack." "Jack? You mean Jake?" "Jack Jake same thing." Said the snob and she walked off. Sam would have lunged but she was picked up by strong arms and held three inches above the floor. She turned and saw Jake.

"Jake! Let me at er!" Jake shook his head, and then spun around as he heard a cracking window.

_At a small village_

"Please Tobias. Please tell me a story." "Bradley, you're what, twelve? Aren't you old enough that you don't need stories?" "Never!" "Alright, how about I tell you about the princess that bought my clothes?" "Yeah!" Tobias laughed and then began his story. Well he would have, but he was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Oh no. Tobias I think it's father! He'll likely beat me for coming here!"

"It's not him! It's me!" Came a voice, unmistakably Lily's.

Tobias flung the door open. "Lil Lily!" Lily hugged both of her brothers and then turned to Luriana. "This is my friend Luriana. She's a wizard!" "I thought wizards were men." "Nope. They can be either one! Luriana told me so. She said that there's only girl fairies though." "Cool." "We came to take you to the castle!" "The castle!" "You mean like where the beautiful princess lives?" "Yeah, but she's getting married soon." Luriana spoke for the first time since they had arrived. "We should go soon. Please get whatever you want to take with you."

They got their few changes of clothes, and then were ready to go.

As they sat on the magic carpet there was a voice behind them. "Get back here!"


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay AceTrace here you go. I don't want to meet you mad (Begins shaking in fear) I'll update soon. I promise! Please R&R :)**

At the crashing of the window Jake spun around. A red dragon burst through the window, then turned to the king, "I'm sorry your majesty for the window." He suddenly looked nervous, and then turned back to the king. "Your majesty, I was wondering if, well, maybe I could have Luriana turn me into a human, and then, well could I marry Princess Samantha?"

The king was very surprised.

"You want to marry my daughter?" "Yes Your Majesty. If you don't mind."

Jake's face hardened. That dragon was _**NOT**_ going to marry _his_ finance.

"Well, Roscoe, I'm very sorry. I'm sure you would make a wonderful husband, but Samantha is getting married in two days."

Roscoe gasped. "She just returned home! How could you marry her off so fast!" Roscoe began yelling in a foreign language.

Sam moved over to him. "Roscoe, I really like you, but as a brother." A huge tear slid down the dragons face.

"I thought that I had found my true love."

Sam put a hand on his scales. The were warm, and surprisingly soft for a dragon. "I'll be happy, and maybe you could be one of our knights. A rather large knight, but a knight. Why you'll even have your own armor, and we won't have to make you any!"

Another tear rolled down Roscoe's cheek. After about five long minutes his crying had ceased. He was a _very sensitive_ dragon.

"D-do you really think I could be a knight?" Sam nodded. "We will of course have to ask father." She turned to her father. "Could he daddy?"

Sam turned to her father using the same puppy dog eyes that she had given him when she wanted Wild One.

He knew he shouldn't, but how could he not. He didn't want this dragon to kidnap Sam too.

"I guess. But no more dragons Samantha!"

Sam was so happy that she hugged her dad. After she stepped back Roscoe flapped his wing over King Wren's shoulder.

"Thank you very much King Wren. I will help replace your window too if you'd like." "Alright."

Roscoe glanced around. There were many Princesses that had fainted, and even a few princes. The ones that hadn't fainted were pale as a sheet. There was however one girl staring in disbelief. Once the princess had gotten back to where she had been talking the girl turned and said, "Sam? You didn't tell me about him!" "I know I'm sorry. I just got back, you just got here, I've been forced to have this heavy tiara on my head. I'm sorry Jen." "It's alright, just don't do it again!"

Roscoe slipped out. He didn't want the ones with extremely pale faces to faint.

_Back at the village_

Luriana stood up on the magic carpet and turned around.

"Excuse me?" "I told my kids to get back here!" Lily shrank back into Tobias. Her eyes were wide with fear. This was her father.

He was tall, and had gray hair. He also had a scar that ran from his ear to his cheek. His eyes were cold stone gray, and he stank.

"There you are!" The man grabbed Lily by one arm and lifted her up. She whimpered in fear and pain.

"Daddy please don't hurt me." She was pleading. But her pleadings weren't working. He struck her across the face, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

"That'll teach you to run away!" "I'm sorry Daddy. Please don't hurt me."

Luriana was angry. Before anyone could stop her she turned Lily's father into a frog, and whisked a pillow out of nowhere so Lily would have a soft landing.

What Luriana did to the "frog" next surprised, and scared everyone. She turned her slender wand into a strange contraption and ammied at the "frog". The thing made a noise that sounded like this, _**"BANG!"**_ Lily screamed and covered her ears.

_On the way back to the castle._

"Luriana? What was that thing that made my daddy explode?" "That? Oh that was a gun. Nobody will know about them for a long time. I time traveled and, well, I found out how to turn my wand into one."

"Oh." Lily sat there thinking for a while, and then said, "I don't like it. It's too noisy!"


	14. Chapter 14

**Here's the next chapter :) It's pretty short, but I'm already writing more :) Please Review :)**

As the carpet flew through the air Lily grinned. She loved carpet flying. But Bradley was getting carpet sick.

He was turning a terrible green, and nobody noticed. Well they didn't notice until they heard a gaging sound and saw puke going over the side of the carpet.

Bradley turned red. He had _not_ wanted to do that. He was so embarrassed.

Luriana moved over to him and put her arm around his shoulder.

"It's alright Bradley. Lots of people get carpet sick." "She's not," He said, motioning at Lily. "and neither is Tobias!" "Well then they are very lucky." She handed him a small root, and told him to eat it. He did. It tasted sweet, but kind of sour. He liked it.

Luriana whispered in his ear, "I get carpet sick, and this helps me to not be sick, it might help you too."

Bradley didn't say anything, just hugged her.

_At the castle._

Roscoe was in the large courtyard that they didn't use anymore. He was bored, but he thought that it was better than scaring everyone in the ballroom.

In the castle the princes and princesses that had fainted were slowly coming to. The princes were turning red that they had fainted, and the princesses were acting so relived that the "monster" was gone.

Jen and Sam were giggling like crazy over something said in Pig Latin, Jake was getting tired of the girls saying stuff he couldn't understand, and the king was very glad that his daughter had cleared the whole thing up with Roscoe. He did _not_ want a dragon fight.

"Ahem!" Nobody looked up. "Ahem!" King Wren ahemed louder. Jen walked over. "Here let me."

She screamed so loud that people put their hands over their ears, and everyone looked towards the king.

Jen grinned and walked back over to Sam.

"You all know that my daughter Princess Samantha Anne, is getting married in one week. We would like to introduce her husband to be to you all."

he looked around for Jake, and Jake was nowhere to be seen.

**I know. I'm a cliffe.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Sorry for not updating for so long, and thank you everyone for your wonderful reviews! Please keep reviewing :)  
**

Luriana, Bradley, Lily, and Tobias arrived at the castle. The first thing they saw was Jake.

"Jake, what are you doing?" Jake spun around to face them, and saw a boy about his age, another boy about twelve, and Lily and Luriana. "Oh, hey guys." "Shouldn't you be in there? You know at the party?" "Yeah, but I don't like being up in front of people, and when he..." Jake trailed off.

"Oh, I see, you're scared." Jake nodded. He knew it seemed a bit un-knightly to say he was scared of being introduced to a hundred people, but it was true.

"Come on Jake at least try!" Lily grabbed his hand and began dragging him to the door. "All right all right I'm coming."

King Wren was looking around. Where was Jake? Had he been kidnapped? No surely he would have fought back. Maybe he just had to go to the bathroom. He hoped that that was what had happened.

He cleared his throat. "I'm afraid that-" Everyone turned as Jake walked in the door with a wizard a boy his age and two younger children in tow.

The king sighed in relief.

"I would like to introduce Jakob, Princess Samantha's finance." Jake's face began to flame. Did they have to do this? Couldn't it just be like commoner weddings? Where sometimes the other villagers didn't even know that they were getting married.

He didn't notice that Tobias was staring at Jen, or that Jen was gawking at Tobias.

Jen nudged Sam, and pointed to Tobias. Sam knew he looked familiar, but how? "Sam, it's him!" "Him who?" "The person I bought the clothes from." "When we were ten?" "Yeah! He's so cute now! Just look at him!" Sam rolled her eyes but giggled a little bit, then nudged Jen. "Why don't you go talk to him?" "Yes why don't I?"

Jen ran off to see if it really was the boy she had bought clothing from long ago, and Sam followed to hug Jake.

"Jakob has been Samantha's body guard ever since she was ten, and the only one that Princess Samantha would agree to marry. The wedding will be in a week."

The festivities went on, and Sam was talking to Jake.

"You know, he didn't say that you were the only one that could "handle" me." Jake chuckled. "I can't believe that he's making us get married in a week." "Making? Do you not want to marry me?" "Yes, but..." Sam trailed off and leaned into Jake.

Then it struck him. She was as scared about this as he was.

"Jake, I just want to get married like normal people! Not have all the guests that I don't know, and not having to wear a tiara all the time..." She trailed off again and Jake kissed her.

However Jen and Tobias were having trouble grasping the idea that Jen had at one point in time bought his clothes.

"You cannot be serious." "Yeah I'm that girl." Tobias was staring at Jen in disbelief. How in the world could this girl be the girl that had walked out in a commoner village with her hair cropped short, and asked to buy his clothes? She didn't look like she would ever have done anything like that. The again, if her hair had been long then, he would have thought the same thing. She was so pretty.

Then without thinking much about it he said, "Um Jen? Could I maybe ask your father if I could marry you?"

Jen gasped but said, "Yes yes, by all means yes!" Tobias's eyebrows shot up. A yes this fast?

"I've kinda had a secret crush on you ever since I met you then and bought your clothes."

That came as a shock to Tobias. She had had a crush on him? "Well, I will, but which one is your dad?"

Jen searched the crowds for her father, and spotted him next to a king of another kingdom, the one that Prince Andrew came from.

"That one. Right over there." "The one with the red hair?" "No. The other one."

Tobias walked over towards the table full of wild boar, and Jen followed him quietly.

"Excuse me sir, I mean Your Majesty?" "Yes? Who are you?" "My name is Tobias, and I wish to marry your daughter." "Jeniffer?" Tobias nodded. He was praying so hard that Jen's father would say yes, but he doubted that he would get the answer he wanted.

"I guess it depends on what she says." Jen popped out of hiding and threw her arms around Tobias, "I say YES!" "Wait, I have a few more questions." King Wren appeared, "If he wants to marry her, let him. I would rather have a happy married princess, than a sad or mad married princess." Jen did puppy eyes, which she had learned from Sam when she came last time.

"Please Daddy?" Tobias glanced at Jen, and thought that maybe if he did puppy eyes...

He decided it would just make him look stupid.

"I'll think on it." That was all he would say.

**Will he say yes? Please tell me what you think should happen, because I really don't know what should happen.**


	16. Chapter 16

**I'm sorry it's so short :( I think I'm experincing slight writers block :( Please review! I have a poll on my page, please vote on it :)  
**

* * *

"_Jen I have made up my mind. You are not allowed to see Tobias, let alone marry him!" "But daddy!" "No buts, in three days you are going to marry Prince Jared." "Him? But daddy, he's mean, he kicked a cat, and his sister said that he's mean to her. Mean like hitting all the time, and leaving bruises. Do you really want me to marry him?" "As long as you are away from Tobias, yes."_

_A tear rolled down Jen's cheek._

_She saw Tobias being dragged off by a guard._

"_Jen! Jen! They're going to execute me!" "But Tobias, why?" "I don't know!" _

"_Jen! Jen! Jen! What's going on!" "Sam! They're going to kill Tobias!" "No they aren't!" "Yes they are!" "Jen! Jen!_ **Jen!"**

"Sam?" "Jen what was going on?" You were screaming like crazy, and crying, what was going on?" "My dad said I can't marry Tobias!" A tear rolled down Jen's face. "Then they said that they were going to execute him!"

One of the ladies in waiting came over. "Princess Jeniffer, are you okay?" Jen nodded, and motioned for them to go away.

"Jen I think you had a very real nightmare." "But that might be what he says! He might tell me I have to marry Prince Jared, like in my dream!" "No he won't. He might say you can't marry Tobias, but everyone knows how cruel and abusive that, that _thing_ is." "But it was so real!" "Once I had a real like nightmare that Jake was eaten by Zared. But he wasn't. It was right after I returned home from Zared's lair. After Zared was killed." Sam gave Jen a hug and said, "Just go back to sleep, and if you still have nightmares we could sneak into the stable." "Okay." Jen buried herself under the covers and tried to go back to sleep, and after about thirty minutes she was peaceful dreaming about killing Prince Jared the cruel.

_In the Stable_

"Tobias, I'm sure he'll say yes." "Yeah right! I want to marry a princess! I drop dead gorgeous princess!" "Well I wanted to marry one, and I'm marrying her in less than a week." "Yeah, but you're a knight. Me? I'm just a commoner." "I was a commoner before I was a knight." "So." "So Come on, Riha's gonna have her foal any time now.

Jake and Tobias walked down the row of stalls until they stopped at one containing a beautiful dapple gray mare.

"She is gonna have it soon!" "Isn't that what I just said?" "Yeah."

Jake stared at Tobias. What a weirdo.

"Okay, Jen it's okay. Look at the horses forget about your dreams." "Well I did have a good one too." "What was your good one?" "I was killing Prince Jared." Sam snorted in laughter.

"What are you girls doing in here?" "I couldn't sleep and Sam wouldn't let me come alone." Then as she realized that Tobias was with Jake she ran over to him and said, "Oh Tobias, I hope my dad lets us get married!" "So do I. I really really do." Sam looked at Jen and then Tobias, then nudged Jake. "Come on, lets them be alone." Then Sam walked towards the couple! Jake looked at her questioningly and she nodded towards Wild One. She was going to go riding, and wanted Jake to come too.

Before long they were out in the meadow racing their horses, and Sam was winning. She was winning until a rabbit spooked Wild One, and Wild One bucked her off.


	17. Chapter 17

**Here ya go! Sorry it took so long :/ Please review :)**

"Sam!" Jake vaulted off of Witch. Her dad was going to have him thrown in the dungeon!

Wild One trotted back towards Sam and Jake, and snuffled the top of Sam's head, thoroughly sorry.

Jake had a sinking feeling in the bottom of his stomach. Was Sam going to be okay? He scooped her up in his arms and held her against his chest. She wasn't moving, and was barely breathing. Her lips were parted and her eyes closed. If it wasn't for the bruise already forming on her head he would have thought she was just sleeping.

"Oh Sam." She could hear his voice, but couldn't move, couldn't answer. She just wanted to tell him she was okay! She could hear his heartbeat through his shirt, and would have been comforted, but his heart was going so fast! So scared. Why was Jake scared? If Jake was scared, there had to be something wrong.

She felt herself being lifted on to the back of a horse. Her head, arms, and legs were dangling over the sides of the horse, and then she felt a hand on her back. She was sat up, and placed between Jake's legs and arms. She felt much safer than she had a moment ago.

The safety didn't last as she realized what horse she was on. She was on Witches back. The monster, as she called her.

The mare started her smooth, but very fast gallop. Sam's head hurt worse with every beat of the hoof.

_Ow, my head hurts. Why can't Witch go slower? Where is Wild One? OW!_

Witch came to a stop. A rough stop. Sam barely heard the hoof beats trying to catch up with Witches long stride, as Jake pulled her off Witch and ran into the barn with her. He had forgotten that Jen and Tobias were in the stables, and intruped their kissing frenzy.

Tobias turned bright red and looked everywhere but at Jen, Jake or Sam. Jen just looked at the floor. Her eyes slowly crawled along the floor until they reached the hay stack that Sam was laying on.

"Oh my goodness! What happened to Sam?" Tobias's head jerked up, and he looked at Sam. His eyes widened. Jake didn't say anything. He didn't look anywhere. He was looking at Sam and Sam only. Tears were threatening to spill. He tried to keep from crying, but it didn't work, and a tear rolled down his cheek.

"Jake?" Jake wouldn't look up. He didn't want anyone to see him cry. He _hated_ to have people see him cry. He also hated to cry.

"Sam…." Tears were rolling down his cheeks, and he couldn't stop them. He loved her. And, well, if she didn't get better, than, he would never get to marry her.

Jen looked at Tobias, helpless. She hadn't really taken a liking to Jake, but she hated to see anyone cry.

Tobias made a flicking movement with his hand, and Jen left. Well, she didn't really leave, she just went over to her horse. A beautiful golden horse, named Silky, and buried her head in her mane.

"You okay Jake?" "I'm okay. But- Sam….." Tobias put his hand on Jake's shoulder, and said, "She'll be okay Jake. Don't worry. Just take her to her dad, and he'll take care of her."

"He'll throw me in the dungeon." "I doubt that." "I know he will." "No he won't, he knows that she will be miserable without you." "So?" "Jake! Quit putting yourself down like that!" Jake couldn't say the words he was thinking. But in his mind he was screaming, "_Don't you care that my futuar wife is laying here dying! Can't you tell that she is hurt? REALLY!" _He just nodded instead.

"Come on, I'll come with you." "He'll want to know what we were doing." "And we will say that you and I were watching the horses, and that they couldn't sleep." "Yeah, so they came out here?" "Jen often goes to the stables when she is having trouble sleeping, and Sam would have come with her."

Jake nodded slowly, convinced, "Okay."

And as they rose to leave, and get Sam's dad, the stable door was thrown open with a shudder, and several of the horses shied.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING WITH MY DAUGHTER, AND _WHERE_ IS JEN!"


	18. Chapter 18

**It's a really short chapter. I'm sorry. But it is a chapter! I'm blocked on this story, but I'll try to write in it once in a while!**

Jake couldn't speak. He was so shocked, and was also worried about Sam!

He didn't know what to say to the angry king, and he wasn't sure why the king was so angry. Tobias seemed to know however.

"Your majesty," He bowed, "Princess Jeniffer is with her horse, she couldn't sleep so she and Sam, I mean Samantha, came out here to ride horses. Jake and I were already out here, and Jake wasn't going to let Samantha go alone, so he went out with her. From what little he's been able to tell me, considering how upset he is that his bride to be is injured, an animal of some kind spooked Wild One, and rendered Samantha unconscious."

"Really? Well a beautiful maiden came pounding on the castle doors and claimed that she saw Samantha, Jeniffer, Jakob, and you Tobias, attempting to run away. Is this true?"

"No, Your Majesty! I would never run away with a princess, it wouldn't be right!"

"Yes and that is why you would do it late at night."

Sam's eyelids fluttered open. "J-Jake?"

"Sam!"

"What happened?" Her head hurt so badly. She was about to cry it hurt so bad.

"A rabbit spooked Wild One, and she shied, and well, you fell off."

Sam rubbed her head. No wonder it hurt so bad.

"Samantha sweetie, what were you doing out riding a horse so late at night?"

"Jen and I were asleep, and Jen woke me up having a nightmare. I suggested that we go out to the stable and at least talk to our horses," Here Sam took a deep breath as she went on, "When we got here we found Tobias, and Jake already here. So I asked Jake if I could go riding. He said yes, but that he was going to come too, you know, to keep me safe?"

"And leave Tobias alone with Jeniffer?"

"She was so tired and nervous after her nightmare, she couldn't ride, and we knew Tobias would keep Jen safe."

"And why was she over by Silly?"

Sam's face took on a puzzled look, and then she looked into Jake's Mustang Eyes.

"When I came in with Sam, Samantha," He found it hard to call her Samantha instead of Sam, "all knocked out ya know? She started to cry, and I guess she didn't want anyone to see her cry, so she went over to Silly to cry into her mane."

"Samantha. Jeniffer. We're going back to the castle." Then turning to Jake and Tobias, "You two stay here."

Jake and Tobias exchanged looks. This didn't sound good.

As Sam was pulled out of the stables she looked back at Jake. She was about to cry. Once in her room, she cried till she was out of tears, and then she went to sleep, and dreamed of her beloved Jake being eaten by evil dragons.


End file.
